including overthrowing a free and a fair democratic election. president trump s campaign to bend the justice department to his political will culminated in a show down on january 3. today we will take you inside that early evening oval office meeting where top justice department officials met with the president. at stake, the leadership and integrity of the department of justice. the meeting talk about another 2 1/2 hours from the time i entered. it was entirely focused on whether there should be a doj leadership change. i would say directly in front of the president, jeff rosen was to my right, jeff clark was to my left.
left the justice department after bill barr resigned in december of 2020. we expect to hear from former acting deputy attorney general richard donahue and stephen angle, the former assistant attorney general nor the legal counsel. we learned a short time ago that federal authorities searched the home of doj official jeffery clark. a name that you re probably going to hear quite a few times throughout the course of the day as we believe we re about to get underway. there s bennie thompson. the chairman of this committee. we expect they ve been punctual in terms of getting underway. there s liz cheney. we see adam kinzinger who will be doing the questioning today. this will be a moment for him in the spot light. he has been obviously controversial within his party for taking this role as has liz cheney. they are the two republicans that sit on this committee,
elections not to certify the results. that s essentially what donald trump was trying to do with the election nor president of the united states. it was a brazen attempt to use the justice department to advance the president s personal political agenda. today my colleague from illinois, mr. kinzinger and other witnesses will walk through the select committee s findings on these matters. but first, i recognize our distinguished vice chair, mrs. cheney of wyoming for any opening statement she s cared to offer. thank you very much, mr. chairman. at this point, our committee has just begun to show america the evidence that we have gathered. there s much more to come. both in our hearings and in our report. but i d like to take just a moment to put everything we ve seen in context. we have already seen how
justice officials make a difference decision. what happens if they bow to the pressure? what would that do to us as a democracy, as a nation? imagine a future where the president could screen applicants to the justice department with one question. are you loyal to me or to the constitution? it wouldn t take long to find people welling to pledge their loyalty to the man. we know many of president trump s vocal supporters january 6 also wanted the justice department to do whatever he asked. as long as it meant he could stay in power. they made sure justice department officials heard the protests loudly in front of the department on the way to the capitol on january 6.
and threatened to resign. they were willing to sacrifice their careers for the good of our country. the department of justice is unique in the executive branch. the president oversees the department of justice but the president s personal partisan interests must not shop or dictate the department s actions. the president cannot and must not use the department to serve his own personal interests. he must not use its people to do his political bidding, especially when what he wants them to do is subvert democracy. the president cannot pervert justice, nor the law to maintain his power. justice must in fact in law be blind. that is critical to our whole system of self-governance. during this hearing, you ll hear time and time again about the president s request to