White House pushed Trump’s attorney general to investigate whether Italian satellites caused voter fraud
White House chief of staff wanted DOJ to investigate conspiracy concerning Italian satellites
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Your support makes all the difference.A recently released trove of emails show that the Trump administration tried to rope then-Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen into the former president's scheme to fraudulently overturn the results of the 2020 election.
That scheme ultimately failed, with Mr Rosen strongly stating his unwillingness to involve himself with Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani or any of his witnesses.
Emails trying to recruit Mr Rosen to the cause were filled with election conspiracy theories that had been debunked and cherry-picked data concerning voter fraud. Then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows pressured Mr Rosen to examine the conspiracy theories and to meet with Mr Giuliani.
And that’s not all. Mr Meadows also went Mr Rosen a handful of emails containing claims that an Italian satellite had tampered with votes.
According to the messages, Mr Rosen was asked to have the FBI meet with one of Mr Giuliani's associates to discuss election conspiracy theories with the FBI, which he declined. He said the former mayor of New York City could follow the usual protocols for passing along tips.
According to the emails, Mr Giuliani was apparently "insulted” by the snub.
"Asked if I would reconsider, I flatly refused, said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his 'witnesses,' and re-affirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this," Mr Rosen wrote.
Mr Giuliani was, next to Mr Trump himself, perhaps the most public face of the former president's fraudulent scheme to undermine the election results.
He spent weeks campaigning for Mr Trump, dredging up strange witnesses – like stripper-turned-harasser-turned election worker Melissa Carone – and making bizarre appearances, like his infamous press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
His ardent defense of Mr Trump eventually landed him in legal trouble with Dominion Voting Systems, a company he alleged was engaging in voter fraud on behalf of Joe Biden.
Dominion is suing Mr Giuliani, who repeated the claims about the company numerous times on national television, in a defamation suit for $1.3bn.
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