Donald Trump considered replacing attorney general to overturn Georgia election results: Reports

Former US president Donald Trump had considered replacing the then-acting attorney general Jeffrey A Rosen with a former Justice Department lawyer, who would have helped him force Georgia officials to overturn the state election results, reported some US media on Friday.

According to The New York Times, Trump only decided not to go ahead with this move after the remaining top officials at the Justice Department said they would resign en masse after this plan went ahead. 

Also reported by The Washington Post, the news comes as the former president is set to face an impeachment trial for inciting “insurrection” over his role in encouraging his supporters with false claims of rigged elections that had come moments before they stormed the US Capitol on January 6.

Even before the election results were declared, Trump claimed that the November 3 elections were rigged in many states including Georgia, a former red state where he narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden. 

According to reports, Trump was frustrated with Rosen as he refused the let the Justice Department interfere with vote counting and he allegedly came up with a plan with Jeffrey Clark to replace Rosen with Clark. 

Clark is a former Justice Department lawyer who supported Trump in his false claims of rigged elections. 

According to The New York Times, the Republican backed down after he was told that his move would prompt mass resignations at a three-hour showdown involving the three men, as compared by officials to an episode of Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice.”

Denying the reports, Clark had denied making plans with Trump to oust Rosen. 

Trump, Rosen and the US Justice Department have not publicly responded to the allegations.

In early January, a leaked audio tape in which Trump pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn the defeat sent shockwaves across Washington.