Donald Trump personally called his attorney general with 'harebrained' legal strategy to overturn election: report

Former President Donald Trump reportedly contacted his acting attorney general to discuss a legal strategy for overturning the 2020 presidential election.

Politico first reported on Tuesday that former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen had revealed the conversation with Trump during recent testimony to a Senate panel.

Rosen said that Trump called him in December about a 54-page legal complaint that was being circulated by groups outside the federal government, the report said. The document was based on a failed Texas lawsuit that aimed to have the U.S. Supreme Court force new elections in six swing states.

Two sources familiar with the testimony said that Rosen was not convinced by the plan, which Politico said was one of Trump's several "increasingly harebrained legal strategies" for overturning the election.

"So when Trump brought up the complaint on their call, the acting attorney general was ready," Politico noted. "The complaint had circulated widely enough at the senior levels of government that the department's Office of Legal Counsel had reviewed it and laid out legal reasons why it was a non-starter. Rosen presented some of these arguments to the president, including arguments related to standing and original jurisdiction, and he told congressional investigators that he persuaded the outgoing president to side with him."

"The Justice Department did not sign on to the complaint," the report added. "And Rosen repeatedly told the president what he didn't want to hear. But despite that, Trump didn't fire Rosen."