The January 6 Committee to Investigate the attack on the US Capitol held its fifth public, live hearing on Thursday. Its focus was former President Donald Trump’s efforts to ensnarl the Justice Department in his web of efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

The scheme, behind the scenes and in public, led to an Oval Office meeting on January 3 in which top Justice Department officials threatened to resign if Trump followed through with his plan to fire Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. He wanted to replace Rosen with an unqualified environmental lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, who was spouting conspiracy theories and was allegedly willing to carry out Trump’s plans. Part of the strategy was to convince officials in key states to present alternate Electoral College elector slates in order to replace the official slates during the counting of the Electoral College votes by Mike Pence on January 6. Essentially, part of Jeffrey Rosen’s job would be to get the states to decertify Biden’s win. Jeffrey Clark had drafted a fraudulent letter to be sent to state elected officials in Georgia, warning them about alleged voter fraud, but the active attorney general (Jeffrey Rosen, after Bill Barr resigned), and his deputy, Richard Donoghue, refused to sign the letter or cooperate with the plan. 

Three of the officials who rebuffed Trump and threatened to quit testified live on Thursday: Jeffrey Rosen, the former acting attorney general; Richard Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general; and Steven Engel, who led the department’s Office of Legal Counsel at the time.

In the January 3 Oval House meeting with Trump, Jeffrey Rosen said that Trump “looked at me and he underscored: ‘Well, the one thing we know is you’re not going to do anything. You don’t even agree that the concerns that are being presented are valid. And here is someone who has a different view, so why shouldn’t I do that, you know?’”

Richard Donoghue described White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s reaction to the proposed Jeffrey Clark letter as “a murder-suicide pact” and advised the president to have nothing to do with it. The implication was that the lives and reputations of all parties involved would be destroyed. 

“It’s going to damage everyone who touches it,” Donoghue remembered Cipollone saying.

In blatant and condemning testimony, Richard Donoghue said that when presented multiple times with the facts, which showed no evidence of election fraud that could have altered the results of the election, Trump’s response to him and Mr. Rosen was “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”

Regarding Jeffrey Clark’s planned appointment, Mr. Donoghue said, “I made the point that Jeff Clark is not even competent to serve as the attorney general. He’s never been a criminal attorney. He’s never conducted a criminal investigation in his life.”

Donoghue’s testimony mentioned GOP Republican Scott Perry, who was the main player in the effort to promote Jeffrey Clark to the position of Attorney General. He and at least five other House GOP lawmakers requested pardons, seemingly admitting that they were doing something illegal. The names mentioned included Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Louie Gohmert of Texas.

On January 11, Mo Brooks sent an email to the White House. According to the January 6 Committee, the email said,“Pursuant to a request from Matt Gaetz” he requested pardons for himself and “every congressman and senator who voted to reject the electoral vote submissions from Arizona and Pennsylvania.” The Committee also presented other evidence of the requests for pardons by these individuals.

The main questioner at the hearing Thursday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, said: “The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime.”

In addition to other riveting testimony by Jeffrey Rosen, a professional who showed his disgust and dissatisfaction with the events that occurred in the final days leading up to January 6, Rosen said that after Trump asked that the voting machines be seized, he told the president that the Department of Justice “had seen nothing improper with regard to the voting machines” and that the Department of Homeland Security had already investigated potential issues and found nothing significant.

Steven Engel, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, emphasized how ridiculous the coup plot was, and that if Trump and Clark had carried out their mission, there would have been massive resignations in the Justice Department. 

In previous testimony to the Committee in nonpublic sessions, Jeffrey Clark “pleaded the 5th” at least 100 times.

The Justice Department raided his home in Virginia on Thursday morning before the hearing.   

Several other details were revealed about the attempts to illegally involve the Justice Department in the attempt to decertify the election results and push the fraud narrative.

If you missed the proceedings, you can watch all sessions on YouTube.