High drama as Jan. 6 hearing details Trump's effort to corrupt Justice Department
Former DOJ officials described how they resisted Trump's relentless pressure.
Thursday's hearing of the Jan. 6 committee focused on the pressure then-President Donald Trump and his allies put on the Justice Department to help overturn the 2020 election.
Here is how the hearing unfolded:
- Previewing next hearing, chair calls Jan. 6 attack 'backup plan' in a 'political coup'
- Trump considered ‘blanket pardons’ for everyone involved in Jan. 6
- Trump WH officials testify which GOP representatives asked for presidential pardons
- Official recalls asking DOJ head of national security to stay on amid mass resignation planning
- Trump on trying to change DOJ leadership: ‘What do I have to lose?’
House GOP leader dodges questions on Trump, integrity of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a news conference Thursday dodged questions about endorsing Trump in 2024 and whether there was any widespread election fraud in the 2020 election.
McCarthy also said he had no regrets about not allowing Republicans to serve on the Jan. 6 committee. Trump has said McCarthy made a "foolish" mistake by refusing to allow Republican members to join the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked several of his picks.
"I do not regret not appointing anybody at all," McCarthy told reporters.
There are two Republicans serving on the House panel: Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. The two outspoken Trump critics were appointed by Pelosi.
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel
Federal agents search home of former Trump Justice Department official
Federal agents searched the Virginia home of former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Wednesday morning, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the activity told ABC News.
It was unclear which federal agencies conducted the search, just hours before the House Jan. 6 committee was set to hold a hearing on then-President Donald Trump's effort to corrupt the Justice Department in what it says was his plot to overturn the election, but one neighbor who witnessed the law enforcement activity said they saw officials entering the residence early Wednesday.
Clark, a former assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources, emerged as a key player in Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department in the wake of the 2020 election. He previously pleaded the Fifth Amendment in an appearance before the Jan. 6 committee and has declined to comment through an attorney when asked about specific details regarding his alleged coordination with Trump and others.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, Luke Barr and Mike Levine
Hearing to detail Trump pressure campaign on DOJ
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and what led up to it is set on Thursday to bring into focus Trump's relentless post-Election Day efforts to enlist the Justice Department in his failed bid to overturn his election loss.
The committee's fifth hearing this month will feature testimony from three former top officials in the department who say they resisted Trump and his allies' repeated entreaties, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue and former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel.
All three have previously confirmed that they joined a group of top White House lawyers in threatening a mass resignation if Trump didn't back away from plans to oust Rosen and replace him with another obscure official in the top echelons of the department who was sympathetic to the Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
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-ABC News' Alexander Mallin
Trump: 'Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to us'
Drawing from handwritten notes, then-acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue documented that Trump told him to, "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen."
When Donoghue told Trump he couldn't change the outcome of the election, he recalled Trump "responded very quickly."
"And said, 'that's not what I'm asking you to do -- I'm just asking you to say it is corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen," Donoghue said.
He also said Trump told him the Justice Department was "obligated to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election," despite officials repeatedly telling him no widespread fraud existed and that Biden was the legitimate winner.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger emphasized the gravity of Trump's request.
"'Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to us,'" he said. "The president wanted the top Justice Department officials to declare that the election was corrupt, even though, as he knew, there was absolutely no evidence to support that statement."