Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark speaks next to Deputy U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen at a news conference on Oct. 21.
One day before the ex-Justice Department official was set to take prominent focus in a Jan. 6th Committee hearing, Donald Trump’s former DOJ civil division chief and key election conspiracy theorist Jeffrey Clark’s home was reportedly searched by the FBI.
According to CNN, federal law enforcement searched Clark’s Virginia home on Wednesday.
Clark is expected to take prominent focus in the Jan. 6th Committee’s hearing into Trump’s efforts to subvert the Justice Department to validate his false election fraud theories. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) branded Clark “Trump’s Big Lie Lawyer,” and the committee’s scathing report referred him to the D.C. Bar for an investigation into his “compliance with applicable rules of professional conduct.”
An environmental lawyer, Clark has no experience as a criminal attorney, but Trump reportedly wanted to install him to fill the void left by Attorney General Bill Barr, who called Trump’s theories “bullshit.” Jeffrey Rosen took over as acting attorney general following Barr’s resignation.
The Washington Post reported that the effort to install Clark failed after top Justice Department officials warned that the move would spark “mass resignations.”
The man who reportedly gave that warning, ex-Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, is one of the Jan. 6th Committee’s witnesses for Thursday’s hearing.
Another anticipated witness—Steven Engel, the former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel—also reportedly threatened to resign.
The FBI did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s press inquiry. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia only confirmed that there was “law enforcement activity in the Lorton area yesterday.” Clark’s home is in Lorton, Va.
Clark’s…
