Committee on January 6 releases text of Meadows’ conversations with lawmakers, son Trump and Fox News host
A year after the 2020 presidential election, new details are still emerging about former President Trump’s unprecedented attempt to overturn the results.
Many of Trump’s actions have been carried out in public, including dozens of bad lawsuits and tweets that sabotage the election process. But Congressional questions and news reports shed light on what happened behind the scenes as Trump tried to cling to power.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Trump’s coup attempt is how he relentlessly tried to weaponize the Justice Department to nullify President Joe Biden’s victory. The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee investigated Trump’s conduct and concluded in a recent report that he had “cruelly abused the power of the president.”
Here’s a big picture of the attempted coup, along with a day-to-day timeline of Trump’s efforts to coordinate the Justice Department’s help with his campaign.
Overview of the coup plot: Four days after Election Day, CNN and other news agencies predict that Biden won. Instead of giving in, Trump immediately began pressuring local, state, and federal officials to overturn the outcome. Many of these officials rejected his requests, concluding that they were unethical, illegal or unconstitutional. But a number of officials and advisers joined the charge and tried to help.
In a few weeks, Trump met and has talked to officials from Michigan and Pennsylvania, who were involved in the election process, hoped they would block Biden’s victory. He fired a senior cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security, who publicly exposed his lies about voter fraud. And he put pressure on the Justice Department, even after Attorney General Bill Barr ordered prosecutors to investigate allegations of voter fraud.
He tried – without success – to stop certification in key states in late November and December. Trump and his allies then filed gratuitous lawsuits across the country to find how to disable results.
Trump called Pennsylvania lawmakers, urge them ignore the fact that Biden won their state and instead appoint GOP electors. He called governor of Georgia and pushed him to convince state legislators there to do the same. These efforts were also unsuccessful and members of the Electoral College met on December 14, 2020, to officially confirmed Biden’s victory.
Time is running out before the transfer of power, Trump becomes more and more desperate and even makes an offer declare martial law. In one infamous call On January 2, 2021, Trump begged Georgia’s top election official to “find” enough Republican votes to overtake Biden’s margins. (This phone call is currently at the center of a criminal investigation by state prosecutors in Atlanta.)
Trump and his allies repeatedly urge top Justice Department officials to help them overturn the results – and Trump almost got fired acting attorney general who declined his bid.
Trump also makes private and public efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence unconstitutional nullification of Biden’s victory while presiding over the Electoral College process.
The coup attempt reached a terrifying climax on January 6, 2021, when Trump staged a massive rally near the White House and incited thousands of supporters. attack the Capitol while legislators certify the results of the Electoral College. The uprising was quelled, but it resulted in 5 deaths and 140 wounded policemen. Biden was inaugurated two weeks later.
View a detailed timeline of Trump’s efforts to abuse the Department of Justice here.
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