Page:Introductory Material to the Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.pdf/40

 Donoghue added that they would not be the only ones to resign. “You should understand that your entire Department leadership will resign,” Donoghue recalled saying. This included every Assistant Attorney General. “Mr. President, these aren’t bureaucratic leftovers from another administration,” Donoghue reminded Trump, “You picked them. This is your leadership team.” Donoghue added, “And what happens if, within 48 hours, we have hundreds of resignations from your Justice Department because of your actions? What does that say about your leadership?” Steve Engel then reinforced Donoghue’s point, saying that Clark would be leading a “graveyard.”

Faced with mass resignations and recognizing that the “breakage” could be too severe, Donald Trump decided to rescind his offer to Clark and drop his plans to use the Justice Department to aid in his efforts to overturn the election outcome. The President looked at Clark and said, “I appreciate your willingness to do it. I appreciate you being willing to suffer the abuse. But the reality is, you’re not going to get anything done. These guys are going to quit. Everyone else is going to resign. It’s going to be a disaster. The bureaucracy will eat you alive. And no matter how much you want to get things done in the next few weeks, you won’t be able to get it done, and it’s not going to be worth the breakage.”

Evidence gathered by the Committee also suggests that President Trump offered Sidney Powell the position of Special Counsel for election related matters during a highly charged White House meeting on December 18, 2020. White House lawyers vehemently opposed Powell’s appointment, and it also was not ultimately made formal.

In the early morning hours of December 19th, shortly after the contentious December 18th White House meeting with Sidney Powell and others, Donald Trump sent a tweet urging his supporters to travel to Washington for January 6th. In that tweet, Trump attached false allegations that the election was stolen and promised a “wild” time on January 6th. This Twitter invitation was followed by over a dozen other instances in which he used Twitter to encourage supporters to rally for him in Washington, DC on January 6th.

The Committee has assembled detailed material demonstrating the effects of these communications from members of far-right extremist groups, like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and others, and from individuals looking to respond to their president’s call to action. President Trump’s supporters believed the election was stolen because they listened to his words, and they knew what he had called them to do; stop the certification of the electoral count.

For example, one supporter, Charles Bradford Smith, noted on December 22, 2020 that “Trump is asking everyone to go” to Washington, DC on January 6th “to fill the streets” on the “day Pence counts up the votes.” Derek Sulenta posted to Facebook on December 23, 2020 that “I’ll be there Jan 6th to support the president no matter what happens” because “That’s the day he called for patriots to show up.” By December 31, 2020, Robert Morss believed January 6th stood for the moment when “1776 Will Commence Again” because President Trump asked them to “Be there, Will be Wild.” Kenneth Grayson predicted what would eventually happen on January 6th, when on December 23, 2020, he wrote on Facebook