On Saturday, Jeffrey Rosen, the acting Attorney General during December/January, testified in a 7-hour closed session with the Senate Judiciary Committee, with lawmakers and their aides from both parties, to answer questions about Trump's attempts to use the DOJ to overturn the 2020 election results.
Richard Donoghue, the acting Deputy Attorney General at the time, who took notes during the infamous December 27 call between trump and Rosen, also met with the committee for about five hours on Friday.
From www.cnn.com/… - Three senators, Democrats Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, plus Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina, sat for the entire Saturday session, the source said. Nine senators in total attended parts of the Rosen interview, and the questions were bipartisan.
Not many details are available about what transpired in that session with Rosen, but Sen. Durbin was on CNN today stating - “I thought he was very open. There's a lot there, an awful lot there, you can imagine seven hours of testimony.”
From www.rawstory.com/… —
"When you were listening to that testimony yesterday, what was the most shocking to you?" Bash asked.
"Just how directly personally involved the president was, the pressure he was putting on Jeffrey Rosen. It was real, very real, and it was very specific," Durbin replied. "This president is not subtle when he wants something, the former president is not subtle when he wants something. It's a good thing for America we had a person like Rosen in that position, who withstood the pressure.
Some more info from the interview —
I hope they subpoena Jeffrey Clark, although he will probably take the fifth.
NYT broke this story yesterday that Mr. Rosen had a two-hour meeting on Friday with the Justice Department’s office of the inspector general and was planning to meet with lawmakers on Saturday.
On Friday Mr. Rosen told investigators from the inspector general’s office about five encounters with Mr. Clark, including one in late December during which his deputy admitted to meeting with Mr. Trump and pledged that he would not do so again, according to a person familiar with the interview.
The meeting was voluntary and not under the duress of a subpoena.
From www.nytimes.com/… —
Mr. Rosen quickly scheduled interviews with congressional investigators to get as much of his version of events on the record before any players could ask the courts to block the proceedings, according to two people familiar with those discussions who are not authorized to speak about continuing investigations.
He also reached out directly to Michael E. Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, and pledged to cooperate with his investigation, according to a person briefed on those talks.
There is general praise for Rosen for one having stood up to trump when trump asked him on Dec 27 to “just say that the election was corrupt & leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen” and two for agreeing to spill the beans on trump’s nefarious deeds.
C&L has high hopes on Rosen’s testimony -
Just imagine where we would be today if Rosen had agreed to play ball with trump on that fateful December day.
About Jeffrey Rosen
On May 16, 2017, Rosen was confirmed as Deputy Secretary of Transportation. He served under Secretary Elaine Chao.
Rosen was sworn in as deputy AG on May 22, 2019, replacing Rod Rosenstein. He was recommended by then AG Barr. Rosen had no previous prosecutorial experience.
On December 14, 2020, it was announced that Rosen would become acting Attorney General on December 24, the day after Barr left office. Even before Barr had left, Rosen was summoned to the Oval Office and pressured by trump to aid him in overturning the election results.
We wonder whether Barr had encouraged Rosen to resist trump and his illegal orders.
Epilogue
There are still many missing pieces of the puzzle and still a good amount of distrust of Rosen, at least at this site. Let’s see how this develops, let’s be patient. The Congressional investigation into trump and the insurrection still has a long way to go. Let’s stay positive, let’s stay energized and let’s keep spreading the truth. Let’s make sure this story does not disappear behind the daily tsunami of news and lies from trump-la-la-land.