Once the immediate past occupant had flown the Oval Office, it was inevitable that more shoes would drop. With lifts. The New York Times reported Friday night that in his desperation to overturn his election loss by any means necessary, Donald Trump schemed with a Department of Justice attorney to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general. They planned to replace Rosen with said attorney, Jeffrey Clark, who might then exert enough pressure on Georgia lawmakers that they would overturn the state’s presidential election results to Trump’s advantage.
Confronted on a conference call with the prospect of Rosen’s ouster, department officials agreed they would resign, the Times reports in a story based on four former Trump officials who requested anonymity:
Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. Trump to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Mr. Trump’s decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis.
Clark cited privilege in not commenting, but claims his advice was consistent with law. The Times lays out the timeline behind development of a plan driven, by pressure from Trump, for the department to find “rampant election fraud” that was not there. Clark believed it was and that the department should inform Georgia officials it was investigating Georgia election when it wasn’t.
What ultimately evolved required some Olympics-level chutzpah:
Mr. Rosen and [deputy attorney general, Richard P.] Donoghue again rejected Mr. Clark’s proposal.
On New Year’s Eve, the trio met to discuss Mr. Clark’s refusal to hew to the department’s conclusion that the election results were valid. Mr. Donoghue flatly told Mr. Clark that what he was doing was wrong. The next day, Mr. Clark told Mr. Rosen — who had mentored him while they worked together at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis — that he was going to discuss his strategy with the president early the next week, just before Congress was set to certify Mr. Biden’s electoral victory.
Unbeknown to the acting attorney general, Mr. Clark’s timeline moved up. He met with Mr. Trump over the weekend, then informed Mr. Rosen midday on Sunday that the president intended to replace him with Mr. Clark, who could then try to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College results. He said that Mr. Rosen could stay on as his deputy attorney general, leaving Mr. Rosen speechless.
It would be another Saturday Night Massacre and invite not only mass resignations at the department “but also congressional investigations and possibly recriminations from other Republicans” and undermine Trump’s efforts to stay in office. After hours of discussion with a team of lawyers, Trump ultimately relented.
The Trump presidency ended after months of denial that he had lost the election decisively, after months of baseless accusations that he had been robbed, and after Trump’s incitement of an insurrection by MAGA/QAnon conspiracy theorists and white nationalists that ended in the sacking of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
After Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, many let out a sigh of relief that democracy had survived a near-extinction-level event. Biden’s team has chops. They believe in governing. News hounds not having to watch for the latest atrocious Trump tweet could go the sleep early again. Dr. Fauci’s mood improved. Still, the Friday Night News Dump is forever.
It is exhausting even writing again about Trump’s bottomless pit of unprincipled neediness. Yet as expected, shoes like the Clark Affair will keep dropping in Imelda Marcos quantities for weeks, months, or years. Investigations will begin. Some will stall. Few will go to trial. Trump will retaliate against former officials who speaks out publicly. Any accountability coming his way will be a fraction of what he and his family business deserve. Historians will be analyzing this period for centuries.
Trump is gum on the soles of the republic.