The panel focused its questions on the efforts of Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general specializing in environmental law, to be named attorney general in the last month of Trump’s presidency so he could pursue claims that Trump had been cheated out of a second four-year term. Such claims have been found to have no merit; state and federal judges have dismissed more than 60 lawsuits presented by Trump and his allies challenging election results.
Clark repeatedly pushed other Justice Department officials to investigate election fraud claims and to press some states to decertify their election results showing Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump.
But as Clark lobbied Trump to be named to head the Justice Department, other top agency officials told Trump that Clark was unqualified to lead the department, according to Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republican members of Congress on the investigative committee.
Ultimately, after other Justice Department officials threatened to resign immediately if Trump named Clark as their boss, Trump dropped the plan to promote Clark.
Clark’s home searched
Early Wednesday, FBI agents conducted a predawn search at Clark’s house in suburban Virginia outside Washington. Russ Vought, president of the Center for Renewing America, where Clark now works, said in a statement that the searchers forced Clark to stand outside “in the streets in his pajamas, and took his electronic devices.” Unnamed sources told The New York Times that the search…
