one of those things at that moment was bj pak. i don't think you are reading things incorrectly.a question for the history books as to whether or not it was the right thing to do for these officials to stay mom and push back on the white house quietly amongst themselves, or if they should have been public about what was happening. >> there's a consequence that once bj pak does resign whether or not it is that the direct request of the senior officials or whether he did it because he wanted to avoid getting yelled at by the president or whatever it was, there was an effective in terms of the georgia plot which is at the white house then handpicked another official, they went outside the line of succession and in bj pak office picked someone else and insulted their, who presumably thought would be more mean-able to these concerns or be lust burned to the saddle of the president who was obsessed, as you report, with georgia at that point so mr. bj pak resigning didn't throw a wrench in the works of this georgia plot it seems to have, if anything, facilitated >> it did and it didn't

bj pak. that u.s.e to testify, we think, this week before the senate-judiciary committee. as part of their investigation into what happened inside the justice department to help trump try to overthrow the election results, and seize power. in the last few days, both richard donoghue, the deputy-attorney general, and jeff rosen, the attorney general, have raced into that same senate judiciary committee to give their testimony, as well. before trump, basically, can get it together to try to stop them from testifying by asserting some executive privilege claim. donoghue raced in, and testified on friday. rosen testified on saturday, for nearly-seven hours. both of those rounds of testimony were behind closed doors. # senator richard blumenthal was one of a handful of senators there for all of the testimony. he came out and called it quote, graphic, dramatic, and chilling. he also said quote, as a former-u.s. attorney and state attorney general for 20 years, there is a real potential for criminal charges h

and the agc also reports that bj pak is expected to speak with investigators from the u.s. justice department. i should tell you, bj pak in his testimony on this matter were also invoked this week by georgia democrats who, right now, are trying to sound the alarm. trying to sound a national alarm about republican efforts in georgia to use these false-fraud claims trump has been taking about the georgia election. to use those false claims, even now, to justify, right now, a partisan-republican takeover of the administration of elections in georgia's largest county. fulton county. which, of course, is a diverse, dynamic, and very democratic stronghold in that state. >> former-u.s. attorney republican bj pak provided hours of testimony to the u.s. senate judiciary committee. in his testimony, he reaffirmed that investigations into fulton county by state officials and the fbi did not yield any evidence of voter fraud. it simply does not exist. republicans are acting in bad faith because they did not like the results of the election. >> that's georgia democratic state representa

bj pak quietly pushed back on all of tell me.s on the senate judiciary committee that not only had his investigators looked into this but state investigators in georgia looked into these claims and had not found evidence to support them but that was not an answer that trump wanted. he also testified that right after this enormous showdown in the oval office between top justice department officials about whether or not the department would intervene in georgia, about whether or not trump would replace the top of the department, right after that meeting was over, and we see this also in emails and notes released by congressional investigators, that the number two official in the department immediately reached out to that u.s. attorney, bj pak, and said call me, it was 10:30 sunday night. pak said it was made clear to him that the president was so upset about georgia, he was not going to stop hammering on georgia, that pak had the choice to quit or be fired, that he was going to be leaving right away, and you see at 7:00 the next mo

attorney in atlanta, bj pak, telling senate investigators he resigned in january because trump was consideringtimes," trump wanted pak out because he wouldn't push bogus claims of election fraud in georgia. joining me, now, cnn political commentator, charlie dent. he is a former-republican congressman and former-deputy assistant attorney general, harry litman. good evening, to both of you. harry, i'm going to start with you. so, u.s. attorney pak says that he quit because the former president was considering firing him for not getting behind this election-fraud lies. according to "the new york times." it was suspicious, at the time. was that part of the attempted coup? >> i think so. i mean, he was really focused on georgia, at the time. he, in just two days from there, will be calling raffensperger and saying i just need those 1,100 votes. and he was totally apoplectic that his u.s. attorney wouldn't go along with the lie. so even though donoghue, at justice, knew it was a lie. they called pak up and said the president's gonna fire you. and pak thought, i'm gonna resign with dignity. nobody w

john, what can you tell us about the testimony of former federal prosecutor bj pak? >> this is part of a series of inte interviews the committee is doing as democrats on capitol hill are trying to gather what they can in addition to what the select committee is doing about january 6 and what they found was that this trump-appointed u.s. attorney was told by justice department officials he would be fired unless he affirmed trump's claims of voter fraud in georgia which he could not because there was no evidence. and so he resigned without explanation in lieu of being fired. we also know that the replacement that donald trump put in the job, somebody shifted over from the u.s. attorney position in savannah, also found there was no evidence. the picture that's emerging from some of these interviews, including those of jeffrey rosen, former acting u.s. attorney, is that donald trump was pushing across the body politic, looking for soft places where he could work his will. and it is fortunate for american democracy that where he tried and where it was most sensitive, he e

john, what can you tell us about the testimony of former federal prosecutor bj pak?ng as democrats on capitol hill are trying to gather what they can in addition to what the select committee is doing about january 6 and what they found was that this trump-appointed u.s. attorney was told by justice department officials he would be fired unless he affirmed trump's claims of voter fraud in georgia which h

and maybe bj pak went through something like that and maybe jeff rosen went through something like that where he said this can't stand. i am most worried that our democracy cannot rely on the fact that people will make good judgments. i'm really glad some people did and alexander vindman did and he is a hero for doing it but i would really like to know there is something else that will prevent somebody like donald trump from undoing democracy as we have learned there was a full plan to do. this wasn't a whim. this was a plan as you pointed out. >> yes. you know, it is exactly right. you can't have a system that depends on super human heroism. there has to be consequences for putting people in circumstances where the only way to move forward in public service is to be self-sacrificing and heroic on a daily basis. today is the anniversary of richard nixon's resignation from the presidency. there were consequences for what nixon forced people to do in terms of being heroic in their efforts to save the republic against him. there were confidence ferences for nixon and a reason his name is a