Former President Donald Trump will not try to prevent people who worked in the Justice Department while he was in office from testifying before the Capitol riots investigation committees.
So far, two congressional committees investigating the deadly riots have asked six former Justice Department officials to testify. In a letter obtained by The New York Times, Trump attorney Douglas A. Collins said that while the president will not attempt to sue officials for testifying, his team might take undisclosed legal action if the committees seek “privileged information” from any other Trump administration officials.
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The letters were sent to the officials rather than the committees, said Politico.
Trump’s lawyer also said that the former president believes at least some information sought by the committees remains protected by executive privilege.
Typically, the Justice Department does not honor requests to testify publicly so conversations of administration officials can be “protected from public scrutiny,” explained The New York Times. However, they agreed in this case due to “extraordinary circumstances” that could connect Trump’s pressuring of officials to validate unsubstantiated claims of election fraud with the events of the Capitol riots on Jan. 6.
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Trump and his supporters have continued to claim that election fraud cost him the election to current President Joe Biden. No evidence has been found to back up this conspiracy theory.
With testimony from Trump’s former Justice Department officials, new details could emerge about Trump’s efforts to delegitimize the election results.
Former attorney general Jeffrey A. Rosen, Richard P. Donoghue, a former acting deputy attorney general, and others have agreed to sit down for closed-door, transcribed interviews with the House Oversight and Reform and Senate Judiciary Committees, which are expected to begin as early as this week, according to the Times.
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