our justice ceorrespondent has more for us. how close were they to actually resigning? we re learning that at least one top doj official had his resignation letter drafted and ready. but he never actually sent it. and this week that official patrick hovakimian, he talked for three hours to investigators on the house oversight committee about what he went through. he was chief of staff for then acting attorney general jeffrey rosen. he wrote his resignation letter on january 3rd. he expected that rosen would be fired by donald trump for refusing the former president s, quote, direct instructions to use the doj to back up false claims of election fraud. it was on that same day, the first sunday in january where trump summoned the acting attorney general rosen and jeffrey clark to the white house to have this apprentice-style showdown. each of them essentially making their case. and at that same time, we ve learned that several doj
call. he pressured them to declare that the election was corrupt, something of course they both refused. but the pressure continued that next day with that draft letter from jeffrey clark where he recommended to georgia asl s lawmakers that they assemble this special election to investigate voter fraud. and clark said, i think we should get it out as soon as possible. personally i see no valid downside to sending out the letter. but an hour later very promptly donoghue sent back a lengthy rebuttal saying this, there is no chance that i would sign this letter or anything remotely like this from where i stand, this is not even within the realm of possibility. and the acting a.g. sending donoghue an email that said, i confirmed again today that i am not prepared to sign such a letter. so in the end this letter was never sent. but it is part of this trove of evidence that lawmakers as well likely the doj inspector
officials did think that rosen would be fired and that clark would replace him since, of course, clark stood behind trump s election fraud claims, so much so that about half a dozen doj officials had their resignations plotted out. but in the end, wolf, of course, trump did not fire rosen even though clark had made very clear that he was really the only one at doj who fully backed trump and his election fraud claims. on top of all of this abc news has now published email showing how that justice department official jeffrey clark was actually trying to help the former president overturn the u.s. presidential election. yeah. clark even went so far as to draft a letter to georgia s governors and lawmakers there falsely stating that the doj had found voting irregularities that impacted the election outcome not only in georgia but in several states. and the letter was drafted december 28th, 2020. that was one day after trump pressured rosen and his deputy richard donoghue in a phone
but dan scavino, the man behind so many of trump s tweets was mia for more than a week. they found someone to accept the subpoena on his behalf down at mar-a-lago. bottom line, guys, very unclear whether meadows or scavino show up today or tomorrow. . so those are the folks who they may not be talking to. who are the witnesses to go ahead? . we learned that the house has subpoenaed former doj official jeffrey clark. now, you ll remember he was the lawyer so eager to please trump that he drafted this bogus letter no lawyer in their right mind would sign. it was never sent. it was to delay certifying election results by falsely suggesting voter fraud had taken place. clark recommended holding a press conference at the justice department to announce that doj was investigating allegations of voter fraud, even though there was no evidence of that at all.