The New York Times is reporting today that his efforts to stay in power were more intense and widespread than previously known. Trump attempted to use the Department of Justice through an acting US Attorney General to pressure Georgia state officials into rejecting the election result in their state that made Joe Biden the winner. Even if the acting official in question complied with his demands, Georgia's sixteen electoral votes would not have been enough to reverse the decision, but if he were successful, it would have breached the system's credibility. That breech could have been exploited in other swing states, hopefully bringing the entire edifice of representative government crashing down around him, and potentially throwing the election into the House of Representatives where his party has a numerical edge in state delegations.
Trump and a DOJ lawyer heading its civil division named Jeffery Clark plotted--that is the accurate descriptor--to remove acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen from office because he had refused to become involved in efforts to pressure Georgia state officials to cancel the election results favoring Biden. Rosen was summoned to the VWH by a desperate Trump the day after Attorney General Barr resigned. He wanted Rosen to file legal briefs supporting lawsuits brought by his allies alleging massive voter fraud. He also wanted Rosen to appoint special counsel to investigate alleged voter fraud and the voting machines provided by Dominion Voting Systems. Rosen refused. Rosen reiterated what his former boss Barr told Trump: there was no evidence of significant voter fraud. All of Trump's suits--more than sixty--were dismissed by courts across the land for lack of evidence or for procedural irregularities. Dominion is suing Trump's lawyers for defamation.
Trump wanted to fire Rosen and replace him with Clark. That did not happen. Department officials convened a conference call where they decided to tell the President that if he did that, they would all resign. Despite being rebuffed by Rosen and his collegues, Trump continued to insist the Department support his efforts to overturn the election by telephone and in person. Because of his intense pressure on Georgia officials, the US Attorney in Atlanta, B.J. Pak, abruptly resigned his office. It took repeated efforts by senior DOJ officials and a White House meeting akin to a scene from Trump's The Apprentice reality-TV show to convince the enraged president to not fire Rosen and replace him with Clark. Clark denies that he was involved in a plot to oust Rosen. Trump's fixation on the Georgia results defies rational behavior and exposes the depth of his psychopathology. What is worse, is that this incident, which was part of the BIG LIE that caused the January 6th Insurrection, may not be the only one in which an out of control chief executive attempted to take down the elected government. The nation has two weeks to find out.