tonight that swimmer sharing her story in an nbc news exclusive. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening an unsent letter described as a murder-suicide pact by a former trump white house lawyer stood at the core of testimony in today s january 6 committee hearing. three former top justice department officials describing former president trump s efforts to enlist help from the department to perpetuate his unsupported claims of election fraud, including pressure on the doj to send an official letter to georgia election officials. that letter falsely stating the justice department had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election. when doj leaders refused to sign it, the president reportedly telling them just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me today s hearing focusing on the actions of former assistant attorney general jeffrey clark who witnesses say stood ready to do mr. trump s bidding. let
general jeffrey clark who witnesses say stood ready to do mr. trump s bidding. let s get late details from garrett haake reporter: the january 6 committee tonight laying out their case that former president trump attempted to force the department of justice to help him overturn the 2020 election, pressuring senior officials to make claims of widespread fraud that did not exist. president trump wanted department of justice to say the election was, quote, corrupt and, quote, leave the rest to me and the republican congressman. reporter: a quote supported by a witness s handwritten notes. l. trump weighed replacing the acting attorney general jeff rosen with a lower level official, an environmental lawyer named jeff clark, who had drafted a letter to key states falsely claiming the doj had found significant fraud there. when he finished discussing what he planned on doing, i said good [bleep]. sorry.