Senior DOJ official considered resigning amid Trump pressure to pursue election claims

A senior official at the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a new interview that he considered resigning over pressure from former President Trump to investigate unfounded claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. 

John Demers, who headed the department’s national security division for three years, told The Wall Street Journal he wanted to quit after Trump threatened to fire acting Attorney General Jeffery Rosen over his refusal to investigate allegations of widespread fraud. 

“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 said. 

“I was relieved, pleased, glad that it didn’t happen,” he added.

Trump, since losing the election, has repeatedly peddled baseless claims that the election was not conducted fairly and widespread irregularities with voting processes swung the election in favor of President Biden. 

Demers, who previously worked in former president George W. Bush’s DOJ, served as head of the national security division again under Trump during a special counsel investigation and two impeachment trials. 

The DOJ has been rocked in recent weeks in the wake of reports that the department under Trump sought communication records between journalists and members of Congress. The White House also reportedly sought records from its own employees in an attempt to ascertain who had been leaking information to the press and people the president viewed as political enemies.