Trump pressed Justice Dept. to back false claims of election fraud

WASHINGTON - An hour before Donald Trump announced in December that William Barr would step down as attorney general, the president began pressuring Barr's eventual replacement to have the Justice Department take up his false claims of election fraud.

Trump sent an email via his assistant to Jeffrey Rosen, the incoming acting attorney general, that contained documents purporting to show evidence of election fraud in northern Michigan - the same claims that a federal judge had thrown out a week earlier in a lawsuit filed by one of Trump's personal lawyers.

Another email from Trump to Rosen followed two weeks later, again via the president's assistant, that included a draft of a brief that Trump wanted the Justice Department to file to the Supreme Court. It argued, among other things, that state officials had used the pandemic to weaken election security and pave the way for widespread election fraud.

https://www.startribune.com/trump-pressed-justice-dept-to-back-false-claims-of-election-fraud/600068350/