This was published 1 year ago
US Justice Department probing Trump’s efforts to overturn election
By Jill Colvin
Washington: The US Justice Department is investigating Donald Trump’s actions in its criminal probe of the former president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, the Washington Post reported, citing sources.
The Justice Department has been interviewing former White House officials, including the former chief of staff to former vice president Mike Pence, who confirmed on Monday that he had testified to a federal grand jury investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his defeat.
Former President Donald Trump is reportedly the target of a criminal probe by the US Justice Department. Credit: AP
Prosecutors questioning witnesses before the grand jury have asked about conversations with Trump and his lawyers and others close to him, the Post reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The testimony of Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, the most high-profile official known to have appeared before the grand jury, is a sign the Justice Department’s investigation into the attack and the fake elector plot is heating up.
Short was at the Capitol that day as Pence fled an angry mob of rioters who called for his hanging after Trump wrongly insisted Pence had the power to overturn the election results.
Pence has repeatedly defended his actions that day, even as his decision to stand up to his boss turned large swaths of Trump’s loyal base against him. Polls show that Trump remains, by far, the top choice of GOP primary voters, with Pence far behind.
Department investigators also received phone records of important officials such as Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows in April, the Washington Post said.
The department could not be immediately reached for comment.
Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence speak at different events in Washington.Credit: AP
A spokeswoman for Trump did not reply to a request for comment from Reuters. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
Criminally charging a former president would be unprecedented, but an investigation by the January 6 committee has laid out evidence for a number of potential charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the US. A California judge said earlier this year, it was more likely than not that Trump and lawyer John Eastman committed those crimes.
If Attorney-General Merrick Garland decides to bring charges, he will want his prosecutors to pursue a straightforward case that can withstand the scrutiny of court proceedings and appeals, which may be the scheme to create false electors, former law enforcement officials said.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News on Tuesday, US time, Garland was asked whether the Justice Department would indict Trump if the evidence supported such an action. “We will hold accountable anyone who was criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer, legitimate, lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next,” Garland responded.
In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Deputy Attorney-General Lisa Monaco confirmed the Justice Department had received referrals about slates of alternative fake electors that were sent to the National Archives, and said prosecutors were reviewing them.
The fake elector plot has featured prominently in multiple hearings of the Democratic-led US House of Representatives committee probing the attack on the Capitol.
Trump returned to Washington for the first time since leaving office on Tuesday, US time, vigorously repeating his false election claims that sparked the January 6 insurrection at the nearby Capitol.
“It was a catastrophe that election. A disgrace to our country,” he said, insisting, despite all evidence, that he won in 2020.
“We may just have to do it again,” he said, repeating as he does in all recent appearances the ever-clearer hints that he will run again in 2024.
He received frequent applause and cheers from his audience, a meeting organised by a group of former White House officials and cabinet members who have been crafting an agenda for a possible second Trump term.
Trump’s appearance in the nation’s capital — his first trip back since January 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden was sworn into office despite Trump’s frantic efforts to remain in power — came as allies urged him to spend more time talking about his vision for the future and less relitigating the 2020 election.
The White House seized on Trump’s comments about there being “no respect for the law and...no order”.
Biden’s Twitter account posted: “You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop – or pro-democracy, or pro-American.”
Trump spoke hours after Pence, a potential 2024 rival, outlined his own “Freedom Agenda” in a speech nearby.
Pence’s speech
Pence again implored conservatives to stop looking backwards and focus on the future as he mulls his own.
Trump and I differ on focus: Former US vice president Mike Pence.Credit: AP
“Some people may choose to focus on the past, but elections are about the future,” Pence said in an address to Young America’s Foundation, a student conservative group. “I believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back America. We can’t afford to take our eyes off the road in front of us because what’s at stake is the very survival of our way of life.”
Marc Short, former chief of staff to Mike Pence has testified to the January 6 committee. Credit: AP
That contrast was on display Tuesday as Trump spoke before an audience of hundreds gathered for the America First Policy Institute’s two-day America First Agenda Summit.
The event had the feel of a Trump White House reunion — but one without Pence.
Pence, meanwhile, received a friendly — but not enthusiastic — welcome from the students, who struggled to break into a “USA!” chant.
In his remarks, he repeatedly touted the “Trump-Pence administration”, but the first question he was asked was about his growing split with Trump, which is particularly stark given the years he spent as the former president’s most loyal sidekick.
Pence denied the two “differ on issues” but acknowledged “we may differ on focus”.
“I truly do believe that elections are about the future and that it’s absolutely essential, at a time when so many Americans are hurting and so many families are struggling, that we don’t give way to the temptation to look back,” he said.
Also on Tuesday, Simon & Schuster announced the title of Pence’s upcoming book, So Help Me God, which will be published in November. The publisher said the book would, in part, chronicle “President Trump’s severing of their relationship on January 6, 2021,when Pence kept his oath to the Constitution.”
Trump has spent much of his time since leaving office spreading lies about his loss to sow doubt about Biden’s victory.
Indeed, even as the House January 6 committee has been laying bare his attempts to remain in power and his refusal to call off a violent mob of his supporters as they tried to halt the peaceful transition of power, Trump has continued to try to pressure officials to overturn Biden’s win, despite there being no legal means to decertify it.
AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
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