By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – The U.S. Senate Democrats reviewed Donald Trump’s effort to use Justice Department to reverse his defeat 2020 election. On Thursday, new details were revealed about a bid by an official to remove the acting Attorney General to support Trump’s lies.

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats’ report details how Jeffrey Bossert Clark was a former senior Justice Department official who met with Trump several times in the latter half of 2020. He was angry at Jeffrey Rosen, acting attorney general, for not opening a public probe into Trump’s false claims that his defeat to Joe Biden was due to widespread fraud.

Rosen assumed the position of president in the last weeks Trump’s presidency, after William Barr quit Dec. 23, 2020. Rosen did not use his department to pursue Trump’s false claims. They were rejected repeatedly by courts and officials from the state elections, as well as his own administration.

In a statement, Dick Durbin, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee stated that “Today’s Report shows Americans just how close to a Constitutional Crisis”, he said.

Rosen informed the committee that Trump had opened a meeting by telling Rosen: “One thing is we know, Rosen, you’re not going to do any to overturn this election.”

Trump asked Clark whether he was willing to assume the role of acting attorney general. The report stated that Clark also relayed this message on to Rosen.

“Rosen recalled Clark indicating that he hadn’t yet decided whether he would accept Trump’s offer, wanted to conduct some ‘due diligence’ on certain election fraud claims, and might turn down the offer if he determined that Rosen and (Rosen’s deputy, Richard Donoghue) were correct that there was no corruption,” the report said.

Clark was also reported to have sought to be seated at a meeting with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in which he could ask questions about the conspiracy theory that the Internet had been accessed through a smart-torch.

According to the report, Clark requested a Georgia letter requesting a special legislative session in order to challenge the results of the election. This request was denied.

Clark failed to succeed after the remaining top leaders threatened to quit if Clark was installed.

Durbin stated that Clark has been asked to testify by the committee.

The Thursday report contains additional details on how Rosen was convinced by Mark Meadows, former White House Chief Of Staff to make “at least four false election claims” in Fulton County and New Mexico.

Republicans served on the Committee and produced their own report with differing conclusions.

“The available evidence shows that President Trump did what we’d expect a president to do on an issue of this importance: He listened to his senior advisers and followed their advice and recommendations,” Ranking Member Charles Grassley said.