Watch NYT reporter explain bombshell report on Trump's attempted coup at the DOJ
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes was in disbelief on Friday as he interviewed Katie Benner, The New York Times reporter behind the newspaper's bombshell report on Donald Trump's efforts to force out his acting Attorney General in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
"The Justice Department's top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department's power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results," Benner reported Friday evening.
"The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump's continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president's entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark," Benner reported. "The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed? The answer was unanimous. They would resign."
"Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. Trump to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Mr. Trump's decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. Trump's reality show "The Apprentice," albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis," Benner explained.
MSNBC's "All In" anchor Chris Hayes described it as "incredible, incredible reporting."
Benner detailed the strange set of events in the tale and how they ran parallel to other pressure efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia.
"What a remarkable bit of reporting, truly incredible scoop and a shocking set of facts that you have unearth and presented to the world," Hayes said.
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