R&I – FS
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog launched an investigation Monday into whether anyone at the agency tried to “alter the outcome” of the 2020 election amid revelations that at least one senior official played part in former President Donald Trump’s plot to overturn his loss.
Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, said in a brief statement that the probe will focus on whether “any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt” to flip or undermine President Biden’s election victory.
Horowitz did not name any suspects and noted that his office does not have jurisdiction to investigate former or current officials from other branches of the federal government.
Word of Horowitz’s probe comes on the heels of reports that Jeffrey Clark, the recently resigned head of the Justice Department’s civil division, held private conversations with Trump about the possibility of ousting ex-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.
As first reported by the New York Times, Trump and Clark suggested Rosen needed to go because of his reluctance to use the Justice Department to pressure states to invalidate Biden’s victory over Trump’s false allegations of voter fraud.
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