The Justice Department is adding to the list of key figures in Trump’s circles with whom it’s spoken as the department’s criminal investigation of January 6 and related circumstances continues.
Now, it’s Ken Klukowski, who worked closely with Trump lackey Jeffrey Clark at the department when both were still on the job and was once identified by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as involved in the creation of an infamous, lie-riddled letter Clark wanted sent to Georgia leadership. That letter falsely claimed the Justice Department uncovered significant issues that could’ve affected the outcome of the presidential election and pushed the idea of state legislators gathering to essentially undercut the state’s election results. “We’ve been fully cooperating both with the Department of Justice and the Select Committee, and we’ll continue with that cooperation,” according to a statement from Klukowski’s lawyer Ed Greim.
The Justice Department already showed interest in Clark, although that could be an understatement: federal agents relatively recently searched Clark’s residence in connection to 2020 election-related investigations and seized electronic devices of his. Trump temporarily considered making Clark the head of the Justice Department in the time period after the election; the man who took over after Bill Barr left, Jeffrey Rosen, wouldn’t get onboard with corrupt ambitions from Trump and Clark. Top legal officials told Trump at the time that they’d resign if he went through with replacing Rosen with Clark. Other individuals who’ve been cooperating with the Justice Department as it investigates election subversion efforts include Pence aides Marc Short and Greg Jacob along with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked with then-chief of staff Mark Meadows and — no matter Trump’s apparent attempts to bully and discredit her — was, in fact, in a position to see critical moments that are under scrutiny firsthand.
News recently — finally — emerged that the Justice Department was asking questions about Trump himself. “The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states, the people said,” per The Washington Post, going off revelations from sources. Predictably, Trump reacted angrily to the news, ranting on Truth Social about how it’s the (imaginary) people behind the (imaginary) election fraud who the Justice Department should be pursuing. Clark, meanwhile, is facing ethics charges connected to that letter he wanted sent from the Justice Department with signatures including Rosen’s to Georgia officials. (The letter never went out.)
The charges aren’t criminal in nature, but they could lead to professional consequences including disbarment. The matter was filed by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel at the D.C. Bar, and it mirrors action in other states against lawyers involved in pushing “Big Lie”-related nonsense. In Texas, a state bar entity filed a court case against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in connection to the infamous post-election court challenge he pushed targeting the election outcomes in four states Biden won. Like in D.C., the possible consequences for Paxton were set to include disbarment.
