DOJ watchdog will investigate if officials tried to 'improperly' overturn the 2020 election
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is planning to probe whether current or former department officials tried to overturn the 2020 election.
Reports over the weekend detailed former President Donald Trump's alleged plan to oust former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen after he apparently refused to help cast doubt on Georgia's presidential election results. Horowitz's Monday announcement seemed to be a direct response to those reports, saying he would investigate whether any officials "engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election." The probe will be limited to current and former employees of the Justice Department, Horowitz said.
Trump's usually loyal attorney general William Barr left the White House just a month before Trump was set to leave office. Both Barr and Rosen reportedly refused to help Trump with his challenges to President Biden's 2020 win, leading Trump to consider ousting Rosen in favor of another loyalist, DOJ civil division head Jeffrey Clark. Trump denies having plotted to remove Rosen, though some former Justice Department officials had reportedly planned to resign if he had been removed. Clark meanwhile reportedly aided Trump in his far-fetched plan to keep hold of the White House.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
California declares bird flu emergency
Speed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, Musk sink spending bill, teeing up shutdown
Speed Read House Republicans abandoned the bill at the behest of the two men
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - December 19, 2024
Cartoons Thursday's cartoons - inauguration shakedown, shaky legacy, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Top Russian general killed in Moscow blast
Speed Read A remote-triggered bomb killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published
-
NATO chief urges Europe to arm against Russia
Speed Read Mark Rutte said Putin wants to 'wipe Ukraine off the map' and might come for other parts of Europe next
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New Syria government takes charge, urging 'stability'
Speed Read The rebel forces that ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad announced an interim government
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Russia's shadow war in Europe
Talking Point Steering clear of open conflict, Moscow is slowly ratcheting up the pressure on Nato rivals to see what it can get away with.
By The Week UK Published
-
South Korea roiled by short-lived martial law
Speed Read President Yoon Suk Yeol's imposition of martial law was a 'clear violation of the constitution,' said the opposition parties who have moved to impeach him
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Syrian rebels seize Aleppo in surprise offensive
Speed Read The rebels made gains against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and reignited Syria's 13-year-old civil war
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published