DOJ's head of national security division considered resigning over Trump's pressure campaign to investigate election fraud claims
The Justice Department's top national security official said he considered resigning after the agency was pressured by former President Donald Trump to investigate false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
John Demers, who will leave the DOJ this week, told The Wall Street Journal that Trump was threatening to fire acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen over his refusal to investigate the president's false fraud claims - which had tempted Demers to walk out the door.
'I didn’t know what was going to happen, I thought that there was a real chance that would be my last day in the department,' Demers told the newspaper. 'I was relieved, pleased, glad that it didn’t happen,' he added, as Rosen had withstood the pressure campaign.
Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division John Demers said the only time he came close to abruptly quitting was when President Donald Trump was pressuring acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to investigate his false claims of voter fraud
Demers said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he almost quit his job at the Department of Justice after now former President Donald Trump (left) pressure acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen (right) to investigate Trump's false claims of election fraud
Last week news of Demers departure from the DOJ initially looked to be connected to the revelations that the department secretly seized records from Democrats, Trump's former White House counsel Don McGahn and members of the media.
However, The New York Times reported the departure was planned months ago but came as the agency is facing backlash over the secret seizures.
Demers told The Journal the closest he came to abruptly quitting was after Trump tried pressuring Rosen to investigate false claims of election fraud.
Rosen took over from Attorney General Bill Barr, who left the DOJ on December 23, less than a month before President Joe Biden's inauguration.
Demers declined to talk to the newspaper about the secret seizures, saying he supported a DOJ inspector general's investigation into it.
News emerged earlier this month that the Justice Department had secretly subpoenaed Apple for metadata from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and another Democratic member of the panel, California Rep. Eric Swalwell, in 2018, as their committee was investigating Trump's ties to Russia.
TARGETED: The Justice Department secretly subpoenaed Apple for metadata from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (left) and another Democratic member of the panel, Rep. Eric Swalwell (right) as the committee investigated Trump's ties to Russia
Schiff at the time was the top Democrat on the panel, which was led by Republicans.
The Justice Department also subpoenaed Apple for data belonging to then White House counsel Don McGahn.
Apple informed McGahn last month, according to The Times, with his wife receiving a similar notice.
McGahn testified in a closed door session to the House Judiciary Committee last month backing up some of the claims found in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report - such as that Trump tried to push officials to remove Mueller, claiming he couldn't run the Russia investigation because he had conflicts of interest.
Eight reporters - one from CNN, three from The Washington Post and four from The New York Times - were also targeted for their records.
A number of them were also reporting on the Russia investigation.
Attorney General Merrick Garland is meeting with representatives from those news organizations Monday.
Garland referred the matter to the DOJ's inspector general to investigate.
'There are important questions that must be resolved in connection with an effort by the department to obtain records related to Members of Congress and Congressional staff,' Garland said in a statement Monday. 'I have accordingly directed that the matter be referred to the Inspector General and have full confidence that he will conduct a thorough and independent investigation.'
'If at any time as the investigation proceeds action related to the matter in question is warranted, I will not hesitate to move swiftly,' Garland continued.
'In addition, and while that review is pending, I have instructed the Deputy Attorney General, who is already working on surfacing potentially problematic matters deserving high level review, to evaluate and strengthen the department’s existing policies and procedures for obtaining records of the Legislative branch,' Garland added.
He vowed to assure the 'full weight is accorded to separation-of-powers' going forward.
The announcement of Demers' resignation comes a day after Schumer said he should appear before Congress voluntarily or face a subpoena to answer questions about the subpoenas, in addition to former attorneys general Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions.
'This was nothing less than gross abuse of power, an assault on the separation of powers,' he continued. 'I don’t think we’ve ever had a record of this ever happening in the past.'
Barr and Sessions have denied knowing about the orders targeting the Democrats and journalists.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also condemned the Trump administration's actions Sunday.
'What the administration did, the Justice Department, the leadership of the former President, goes even beyond Richard Nixon,' Pelosi said on CNN's State of the Union.
Pelosi said she didn't buy Barr's and Sessions' ignorance.
'The Justice Department has been rogue under President Trump in so many respects,' she said. 'How could it be that there could be an investigation of the members in the other branch of government and the press and the rest too, and the attorneys general did not know?'
Demers had been charged with combating Chinese intellectual property theft, but the division, a consolidation that was part of the post 9/11 Patriot Act, oversaw all the DOJ's primary national security operations.
Demers will be replaced by Mark Lesko, the acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, the official said.
Demers has been in charge of the department's national security division since February 2018, being sworn in a few weeks after the subpoena was issued to Apple for the Democrats' records, and his division has played a role in each of the leak investigations.
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