

And I don't know what happens after that. Your entire department leadership will walk out within hours. Every single (assistant attorney general) will walk out on you. "You're going to lose your entire department leadership. "I'm telling you what's going to happen," Donoghue recalled telling Trump. "If the Justice Department gets out of the role that it's supposed to play, that's really bad for our country."ĭonoghue would offer the darkest assessment of the president's proposed action: "The issue was the use of the Justice Department, and it's just so important that the Justice Department adhere to the facts and the law," Rosen told the committee, recalling the tense confrontation. attorney Richard Donoghue, as crucial guardians of a then-wobbly democracy. 6, 2021, Capitol attack in testimony that cast the former unknown and a small cadre of top aides, including blunt-spoken former Brooklyn U.S. On Thursday, Rosen outlined Trump’s pressure campaign before a special House committee investigating the Jan. What Rosen could not have known at that time is how he would be thrust into the role of acting attorney general following the early exit of Bill Barr and headlong into a bitter fight for the independence of the Justice Department that Trump sought to enlist in a campaign to subvert President Joe Biden's election. 6 hearing takeaways: 'Just say it was corrupt,' Trump told DOJ officials about 2020 election "So, I’m sure there are things I don’t know. "You know, it’s always risky to assume that you know what you don’t know," he said in an interview with USA TODAY shortly after taking office. WASHINGTON – When Jeffrey Rosen arrived at the Justice Department as deputy attorney general in 2019, he did so as a relative unknown whose striking lack of prosecutorial experience drew sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers.Ī former top official at the Transportation Department, Rosen was replacing Rod Rosenstein, whose tumultuous tenure had been inextricably linked to the Russia investigation and who had become a punching bag for then-President Donald Trump.Ī few months after his confirmation, Rosen would acknowledge his role as "the new guy," adding that the experience deficit had so far presented few problems.
