Inside Trump's effort to 'take over' the midterm elections

In December 2020, federal officials gathered at the Justice Department to address Donald Trump's claims of election fraud. Attorney General William Barr questioned experts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency about the possibility of hacking in the 2020 presidential vote. The experts explained that a mistake by a clerk in Antrim County, Michigan, had caused a software issue, not fraud. Barr met with Trump on December 14 and informed him of the findings, then offered his resignation, which was accepted. Barr's departure was a significant moment in the aftermath of the 2020 election, as he was one of many federal officials who refused to support Trump's claims. The institutional guardrails of American democracy ultimately held, but many of those who defended them are now gone.