I’d
like to address Chairman Durbin’s Trump investigation, examining the period of December
14, 2020 through January 3, 2021. We released our respective reports today.
This
truncated investigation doesn’t support the long-running Democratic narrative
that Trump used the Justice Department to try to overturn the 2020 election.
And
it’s truncated because we don’t have all the records and this committee only
interviewed three witnesses.
The
available evidence shows that President Trump didn’t use the Department of
Justice to subvert the 2020 election.
For
example, one witness testified that President Trump had “no impact” – I repeat
“no impact” – on what the Department did to investigate election allegations.
In
fact, the evidence shows that President Trump listened to his advisors and
their recommendations, and he followed them.
The witnesses also testified that President Trump didn’t fire anyone at the
Justice Department relating to the election.
Records
indicate that President Trump’s focus was on “legitimate complaints and reports
of crimes.”
Witnesses
testified that President Trump’s main focus was on making the Department awareof the potential
criminal allegations and to ensure the Department did its job. It wasn’t to
direct or order specific investigative steps.
Witnesses
also testified that it wasn’t
unreasonable for President Trump to ask the Department what it was doing to
investigate election fraud and crime allegations.
Now,
with respect to the other core issues in the Democratic narrative, the
available evidence shows three facts:
President
Trump rejected sending the letter drafted and advocated by Assistant Attorney
General Clark to various states contesting the election.
President
Trump rejected firing Acting Attorney General Rosen. Indeed, after Bill Barr
submitted his resignation, President Trump apparently considered Richard
Donoghue as a replacement, showing his displeasure with Rosen.
President
Trump accepted Acting Attorney General Rosen’s position that the Department not
file a lawsuit against states with reported voter issues.
The
Democrats’ report makes much of efforts by individual lawyers to push the
Department to take these steps.
But
the fact is, none of these steps were taken because President Trump made the
ultimate decision not to.
At
each of these critical decision points, the President asked his advisors for
their candid views and recommendations, and he followed them.
Ask
yourself this, where would we be now if President Biden followed the advice and
recommendations of his advisors regarding Afghanistan?
Again,
I’m not sure why the Committee is releasing transcripts and an investigative
report when the investigation doesn’t seem to be complete.
I
run investigations differently.
I
collect the records and run all the necessary interviews.
I
gather the full set of facts.
Then,
I release the material publicly.
So
far, the narrative the Majority has been spinning here just isn’t borne out by
the facts.
Don’t
take my word for it. Just read the transcripts.