US President Donald Trump speaks at an event honoring Bay of Pigs veterans in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on September 23, 2020.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
In his final days in office, former President Donald Trump pressured top Department of Justice officials to challenge his election loss to President Joe Biden, the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday.
The oversight panel said that a cache of more than 200 pages of newly released documents sheds new light on how Trump tried to undermine the results of the 2020 election and advance unsupported voter fraud claims, with the “apparent goal” of keeping himself in power.
The documents show, among other allegations, that Trump in December pressed the Justice Department to file a Supreme Court lawsuit to nullify the election, the committee said.
The dump of new materials came hours before the Oversight Committee was set to hold its second hearing on the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol invasion.
“These documents show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost,” Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said in a press release.
“Those who aided or witnessed President Trump’s unlawful actions must answer the Committee’s questions about this attempted subversion of democracy. My Committee is committed to ensuring that the events leading to the violent January 6 insurrection are fully investigated.”
The committee has also requested transcribed interviews with Mark Meadows, Trump’s White House chief of staff at the time, along with four Justice Department officials.
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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