Leaked emails obtained by CNN show that former top officials at the Department of Justice reacted with horror after being asked to investigate voter fraud conspiracy theories by former president Donald Trump and his allies.
The emails show that former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue both wanted no part of a White House pressure campaign to use the department to investigate wild voter fraud conspiracy theories, including entirely baseless claims about Italy using satellites to change Trump supporters’ votes.
In fact, the emails show that then-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadowssent Rosen a YouTube video outlining Italy’s purported satellite plot. Rosen, in turn, forwarded it to Donoghue, who simply called it “pure insanity.”
Rosen also slapped away a Meadows request for the Justice Department to review purported signature match anomalies in Georgia.
“Can you believe this?” Rosen wrote to Donoghue about Meadows’ request. “I am not going to respond to the message below.”
The emails also show that Rosen pointedly refused to meet with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who relentlessly pushed false claims about Dominion Voting Systems rigging the election for President Joe Biden.
“I flatly refused, said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his ‘witnesses,’ and re-affirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this,” Rosen wrote in one email after being asked to meet with Giuliani.