Trump lashed out after documents were released showing him pressuring Justice Department officials to overturn the 2020 election
Former President Donald Trump lashed out at the release of records of his pressuring DOJ officials.
The documents indicate Trump urged officials to say the 2020 election was "corrupt."
In a statement Saturday, Trump repeated the election-fraud claims in his bid to overturn his defeat.
Former President Donald Trump, in an at-times-contradictory statement, responded to the release of documents indicating he pressured officials at the Department of Justice to subvert the result of the 2020 US election.
In the statement Saturday, Trump denied that the documents showed he sought to overturn his election defeat while repeating the baseless voter-fraud claims that have been central to his bid to delegitimize Joe Biden's win.
The House oversight committee released the documents Friday. They contained handwritten notes of a December 27 call between the acting attorney general at the time, Jeffrey Rosen, and Trump taken by Rosen's deputy, Richard Donoghue, who was also present on the call.
"Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me," Trump told the officials in the call, according to the notes. The officials responded that no evidence had been uncovered by the Justice Department to substantiate the president's claim.
In his statement, Trump said the documents did not show he attempted to overturn the election yet repeated his election-fraud claims and offered no new evidence to bolster their credibility.
"The corrupt and highly partisan House Democrats who run the House Oversight Committee yesterday released documents-including court filings dealing with the rigged election of 2020-that they dishonestly described as attempting to overturn the election," Trump said.
"In fact, it is just the opposite. The documents were meant to uphold the integrity and honesty of elections and the sanctity of our vote," he added. "The American People want, and demand, that the President of the United States, its chief law enforcement officer in the country, stand with them to fight for Election Integrity and to investigate attempts to undermine our nation."
Trump has pushed his election-fraud big lie since losing the contest last year. Amid rumors that he was gearing up for another bid for political office, the claim has become the center of his messaging.
Last week a House select committee began investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, in which supporters motivated by Trump's election-fraud conspiracy theories attacked the Capitol in a bid to halt Biden's certification as president.
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