The Justice Department watchdog announced earlier this week that he had opened an investigation into whether any of the department’s officials tried to undo the results of the presidential election, as scrutiny of former President Donald Trump and his associates builds before his impeachment trial.

The investigation by the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, follows efforts by Trump and a top federal law enforcement official, Jeffrey Clark, to push other Justice Department leaders to falsely assert that continuing fraud investigations cast doubt on the election results. Trump was said to have considered installing Clark as acting attorney general to carry out the scheme.

"The inspector general is initiating an investigation into whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election,” Horowitz said in a statement Monday, adding that he was announcing the inquiry to reassure the public that the matter was being examined.