STEP TOO FAR

White House Counsel Told Trump He’d Quit Over ‘Murder-Suicide Pact’ to Overturn Election

Trump was reportedly talked down from getting rid of his acting attorney general by the threat of mass resignations.

Three days before his supporters stormed the Capitol, then-President Donald Trump was reportedly talked down from getting rid of his acting attorney general by the threat of mass resignations that included his closest legal adviser. According to The New York Times, the detail is contained in an interim report from the Senate Judiciary Committee about Trump’s pressure campaign on the Justice Department as he tried to overturn his election defeat. Trump reportedly gathered DOJ leaders in the Oval Office on Jan. 3 to discuss his plan to ditch Acting AG Jeffrey Rosen and install a loyalist, Jeffrey Clark, to help him contest the election. According to the Times, the DOJ officials told Trump they’d all quit if he carried out the plan, and they were backed up by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who also said he would resign. One meeting participant recalled that Cipollone described Trump’s plan as a “murder-suicide pact,” and Trump eventually backed down. The full interim report will be released publicly this week, according to the Times.