By Allan Smith - NBC News
Then-President Donald Trump pressured top Justice Department officials in a phone call in December to
declare that the elections he had lost were "corrupt."
"Leave the rest to me," Trump added, according to handwritten notes taken by officials during the call and released Friday.
Trump lobbied top Justice Department officials in a Dec. 27 call with then-Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his
number two
, Richard Donoghue, as part of an effort to undemocratically overturn Joe Biden's victory.
Donoghue captured the conversation in his handwritten notes, which were released by the House Oversight Committee on Friday.
The committee is investigating Trump's efforts to push false claims about the election in an attempt to nullify the results and remain in office despite his defeat.
[Five Big Untruths Trump Said About The Election At An Event In Georgia]
Rosen told him that the Justice Department "cannot" and "will not snap its fingers" to change the outcome of the election.
And Trump responded then: "I don't expect him to do that, just say that the election was corrupt" and "leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen."
Trump added: "We have an obligation to tell people that this was an illegal and corrupt election," according to Donoghue's notes.
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Although Donoghue does not name the legislators referred to in that comment, at other times in the conversation, he notes that Trump is referring to
Representatives Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio;
Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania;
and Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin.
[More than 50% of Republicans believe that Trump won the election and is the real president, according to a poll]
"These handwritten notes show that Trump directly instructed our nation's top law enforcement agency to take action to overturn a free and fair election in the final days of his presidency," said the chair of the Oversight Committee. House of Representatives Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, in a statement about the documents her committee obtained.
"The committee has begun scheduling interviews with key witnesses to investigate the full extent of the former president's corruption, and I will use all tools at my disposal to ensure that all witness testimony is secured without delay," Maloney added.