Quote:Most of the hearing focused on what happened the weekend before the Capitol protest; Rosen vehemently opposed signing a letter authored by Jeffery Clark, the acting assistant attorney general at the time, that urged Georgia officials to call a special session to examine evidence of voter fraud in that state. Rosen, along with his chiefs and dozens of federal prosecutors, threatened to resign if Trump replaced Rosen with Clark. (Sadly, Trump did not take up Rosen’s threat.)

But an offhand comment by Richard Donoghue, Rosen’s ex-deputy, went unnoticed and unexplored by the committee. Donoghue explained that on the afternoon of January 3, 2021, Justice Department leadership met to discuss “preparations” for January 6.

That disclosure gave committee members the ideal opening to question Rosen about the Justice Department’s activities days before the protest. Who attended that meeting? What plans were in place to protect the Capitol and lawmakers if violence erupted? What intelligence did the department, particularly the FBI, receive in advance of January 6?