Justice Department Probing Trump's Efforts to Challenge Election: Wash Post

The Justice Department is investigating Donald Trump's actions in a criminal probe of the former president's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing sources.

The Justice Department has been interviewing former White House officials, including the former chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, who said Monday that he had testified to a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in 2020.

Trump has long maintained that he challenged the election tally because of massive voter fraud.

Prosecutors questioning witnesses before the grand jury have asked about conversations with Trump and his lawyers and others close to him, the Post reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The testimony of Pence's former chief of staff, Marc Short, the most high-profile official known to have appeared before the grand jury, is a sign the Justice Department's investigation of the attack on the Capitol and related matters is heating up.

Justice Department investigators in April also received phone records of important officials such as Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows, the Washington Post said.

The Justice Department could not be immediately be reached for comment.

A spokeswoman for Trump did not reply to a request for comment from Reuters. Trump has denied wrongdoing, calling the Jan. 6 probe an effort to hurt him politically and thwart any 2024 reelection bid. The real crimes, he has said, involved voter fraud on Election Day 2020. He has blasted the House panel probing the breach of the Capitol – in which protesters sought to halt congressional certification of Biden's Electoral College win – for failing to do anything to examine evidence of that voter fraud.