According to a brief report this week from POLITICO, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot was scheduled to hear testimony from former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen on Wednesday. Rosen served in that role towards the end of the Trump administration, when he had a front row seat to attempts by the then-president to use the powers of the Justice Department to support his efforts to stay in power. Those efforts by Trump included outreach to Rosen, who the then-president wanted to support his election fraud claims. Eventually, Trump considered replacing Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, a then-Justice Department official who was more supportive of the then-president’s nonsense.
The acting attorney general during the final days of the Trump admin, Jeff Rosen, is scheduled to appear before the Jan. 6 select committee *today.* https://t.co/SGzEMEnoa3
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 13, 2021
Notably, Richard Donoghue — who served as acting deputy Attorney General under Rosen — has already spoken with the riot investigation committee. POLITICO noted that Rosen “has detailed, firsthand knowledge of Trump’s attempt to dragoon DOJ into his effort to overturn the 2020 election. But it’s unclear how much new information the panel will be able to get from him: Rosen has testified publicly about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and took questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee for its separate probe into Trump’s efforts to influence DOJ.” The Senate Judiciary Committee released an interim report from that ongoing investigation just recently, with committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) outlining over the weekend how investigators were able to tie Trump directly to what unfolded.
Whitehouse explained that Senators possess “a very complete picture of the extent to which Trump was personally involved in this,” adding: “This is a question in which you can actually connect the president of the United States to the scheme.” A press release from the Judiciary Committee laid out examples of this, including, on Trump’s part, “at least nine calls and meetings with Rosen and/or Donoghue starting the day former Attorney General Bill Barr announced his resignation and continuing almost until the January 6 insurrection—including near-daily outreach once Barr left DOJ on December 23.” Rosen and Donoghue consistently resisted Trump’s entreaties.
The riot investigation committee in the House has yet to release any kind of public report regarding any findings so far, although the probe remains in its early stages. Committee members have directly shot down reports that they have any intention other than being as rigorous as possible with their investigation, which has so far also included subpoenas to individuals like former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was in contact with Trump before January 6.
