Jeffrey Clark, a former top official at the Justice Department, is set to provide testimony to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. CNN reported late this week that Clark’s testimony was set for the following Friday, meaning October 29.
Notably, CNN reported as much about Clark’s testimony after the riot investigation committee issued a subpoena for Clark, which committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) indicated was only issued after previous efforts to secure his voluntary testimony failed. The report about Clark’s impending testimony also emerged after the riot investigation committee moved to hold top Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for his defiance of his own subpoena. Clark may have taken notice and adjusted his actions accordingly to avoid his own contempt proceedings.
While on the job at the Justice Department, Clark was an avid proponent of Donald Trump’s lies about the election, and he was considered by Trump as a replacement for then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, which would have allowed Clark to perpetrate even more damage.
Clark attempted to gin up official Justice Department support for Trump’s election fraud claims, including with a letter that he wanted sent to officials in Georgia claiming that federal authorities had uncovered reasons to be concerned about the integrity of the presidential election outcome, although such was not the case. In that same letter, Clark wanted the Justice Department to suggest convening a special legislative session in Georgia to examine the supposed issues. State legislators faced repeated pressure from Trump allies to appoint members of the electoral college for their respective states that backed Trump, no matter the actual presidential election outcomes in their locales.
As summarized by CNN, Clark’s “testimony could be a major step forward for Democrats as they attempt to determine what former President Donald Trump, Republican members of Congress and his advisers did and said behind closed doors about overturning the results of the 2020 election before January 6.” Rosen and ex-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, who Clark also tried to loop into his election subversion schemes, have already testified to the riot investigation committee. Both also spoke to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which spoke in a recently released interim report from its ongoing investigation into Justice Department corruption about Clark’s “attempt to induce Rosen into helping Trump’s election subversion scheme by telling Rosen he would decline Trump’s offer to install him in Rosen’s place if Rosen agreed to aid that scheme,” per a committee press release.
