Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows pressed DOJ to probe claim Italy meddled in election using military satellites
- New emails show he pressured the Justice Department to investigate baseless theories that the election was stolen from Trump due to foreign meddling
- A conspiracy theory claimed that allies of Joe Biden in Italy could flip the result of the election using military satellites
The New York Times first reported on Saturday that in emails between December and January to then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Meadows pressed him to investigate the baseless theories that the presidential election was stolen from Trump due to mass fraud or foreign meddling.
Among the claims, Meadows pushed was the bizarre “Italygate” conspiracy theory.
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In other emails, Meadows discussed unsubstantiated claims of mass fraud in New Mexico and Georgia, pushed by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
The report was later confirmed by CNN and The Washington Post.
The emails were recovered as part of a Senate Judiciary Committee probe into whether the Justice Department had been involved in Trump’s attempt to overturn the election result.
Meadows’ campaign to get the Justice Department to investigate the conspiracy theories is highly controversial as White House officials should not seek Justice Department investigations for political purposes.
According to the Times, the emails do not show that Rosen opened investigations into any conspiracy theories. Another email showed Rosen refused to broker a meeting between the FBI and a man who’d promoted the Italygate conspiracy theory in online videos.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told CNN that the “new evidence underscores the depths of the White House’s efforts to co-opt the department and influence the electoral vote certification. This is a fire alarm fire for our democracy.”
Insider has contacted Meadows for comment on the reports.
