When Donald Trump called Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen nearly every day to urge him to investigate various and sundry conspiracy theories he read online regarding claims of fraud in the 2020 election, a Justice Department aide was frequently nearby taking notes.

According to the Washington Post, the notes taken by Richard Donaghue, Rosen’s Acting  Deputy Attorney General, could now become evidence in Congressional investigations into Trump’s action in the weeks after the election leading up to the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.

The Justice Department has told Rosen, Donaghue and other officials who served in the department at the end of the Trump administration that no claims of executive privilege will be honored.  (It’s the duty of the current administration, not the out-of-office officials, to make any such claim.)  This means that if all those people were called before Congressional or judicial hearings, they could not duck out of testifying. 

“You are authorized to provide information you learned while at the Department,” including “your knowledge of attempts to involve the Department in efforts to challenge or overturn the 2020 election results,” the DOJ letter to Rosen reads.  “This includes your knowledge of any such attempts by Department officials or by White House officials to engage in such efforts.”

Post sources said that the calls began immediately after Bill Barr, the former Attorney General, left the Justice Department.  It’s unclear if Trump made any similar calls to Barr.  The calls ended after the January 6th attack, undertaken by Trump supporters to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College votes and hand the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden.