US Justice Department documents show Trump tried to overturn 2020 election

A House of Representatives panel has said former US President Donald Trump, his chief of staff and other allies to pressure the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. 

The House Oversight and Reform Committee said on Tuesday the details are enlisted in the documents the committee obtained from the Department of Justice. 

The committee outlined a series of overtures from Trump, top aide Mark Meadows and an outside private attorney pushing the department to act on Trump’s election claims that it was rigged in favor of Joe Biden, the current US president. 

"These documents show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost," Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said.

The documents showed Jeffrey Rosen, the acting US attorney general from December 2020 to January 2021, declined to arrange a meeting between Justice Department officials and Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani about his claims that the November election was stolen from Trump. Meadows had asked Rosen to arrange the meeting with Giuliani.

"I flatly refused, said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his 'witnesses,' and re-affirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this," Rosen wrote in email to a Justice Department colleague on January 1.

Trump claimed that the election was rigged by the Washington establishment in favor of Biden, the Democrat who was declared the winner.  According to recent surveys, most Republicans still believe that the election was stolen from Trump, and Trump is the legitimate president of the United States. 

The documents are released as the committee is set hold a hearing later Tuesday with FBI director Christopher Wray, and General Charles Flynn, brother of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who has also advanced Trump's election claims.

The documents come as Democrats continue to investigate the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump protesters seeking to thwart Congress' certification of Biden's controversial win.

The protesters stormed the Capitol in the hope of overturning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election but to no avail.

Angry protesters clashed with police and tried to beat up a number of Democratic lawmakers. They also damaged some parts of the building housing both wings of Congress.  

Trump: Biden 'won because the election was rigged'

Trump seems to have implicitly conceded defeat to Joe Biden while claims the election was rigged.

At least five people including a US Capitol police officer had died in ensuing clashes with dozens of policemen and Trump supporters getting injured.

US authorities have arrested hundreds of protesters and FBI Director Chris Wray said last week that “serious charges” were coming against many of them.

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