‘Pure insanity’: Justice Dept. rebuffed Trump bid to overturn election

2021-06-15T141409Z_2_LYNXNPEH5E0JF_RTROPTP_3_USA-POLITICS-CONSERVATIVES

Former President Donald Trump pressed the Justice Department during his waning weeks in office to join his failed effort to overturn his election defeat based on his false claims of voting fraud, but its leaders refused, with one decrying the “pure insanity” of the claims, documents released on Tuesday showed.

The House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee, which obtained the records as part of an investigation, outlined a series of overtures made by the Republican former president, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and an outside private attorney, Kurt Olsen, pushing the department to act on Trump’s claims.