Yahoo Finance January 6 committee displays notes from former Trump DOJ official in which the then-president urges him to 'just say the election was corrupt'
The January 6 committee displayed a previously unseen note from a former Trump DOJ official.
According to Richard Donoghue, Trump told him and other officials to "just say the election was corrupt."
According to Trump, DOJ officials could "leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen."
The January 6 committee on Thursday displayed scans of notes taken by Richard Donoghue, then the acting deputy attorney general serving out the final days of the Trump administration.
One note, displayed as Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois led the committee's questioning, included an apparent plea from then-President Donald Trump to "just say the election was corrupt" and "leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen."
That missive from Trump has previously been reported, but Americans saw the note for the first time on Thursday.
"You guys may not be following the internet the way I do," Trump said, according to prior reporting on Donoghue's notes.
At Thursday's hearing, Donoghue confirmed the veracity of the quote under oath.
"That's an exact quote from the president, yes," said Donoghue. He reiterated the department's findings in 2020 that voter fraud did not significantly influence the 2020 election.
"There were isolated instances of fraud, none of them came close to calling into question the outcome of the election in any individual state," he said.
He also said Trump appeared "agitated" during his several meetings with officials at the Justice Department as he sought to reverse his election loss.
"The President, throughout all of these meetings and telephone conversations, was adamant that he had won, that we were not doing our job," said Donoghue.
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