The House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 on Wednesday subpoenaed Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump administration Justice Department official who attempted to use department resources to bolster former President Trump’s election fraud falsehoods.
The subpoena requires Clark to produce documents and appear for a deposition on Oct. 29.
“The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed credible evidence that you attempted to involve the Department of Justice in efforts to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” the committee wrote in its letter.
“You proposed that the department send a letter to state legislators in Georgia and other states suggesting that they delay certification of their election results and hold a press conference announcing that the department was investigating allegations of voter fraud.”
Clark was a key player in a Senate report last week that took a sweeping look at Trump’s efforts to weaponize the DOJ to overturn the election results.
In a statement, committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said the panel “needs to understand all the details about efforts inside the previous administration to delay the certification of the 2020 election and amplify misinformation about the election results.”
“We need to understand Mr. Clark’s role in these efforts at the Justice Department and learn who was involved across the administration,” Thompson wrote. “The Select Committee expects Mr. Clark to cooperate fully with our investigation.”
The Senate report released last week documents how Trump deputized Clark in his attempts to have the DOJ declare the election tainted by fraud. Clark has yet to agree to a request to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
According to the report, Clark planned to instruct state legislatures to consider appointing a new slate of electors amid Trump’s refusal to concede. Clark had informed his superiors at the DOJ that Trump was gearing up to install him as acting attorney general. Former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, however, prevented the scheme from being realized.
In addition to Clark, the committee subpoenaed four other former Trump administration officials late last month: former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Defense Department official Kash Patel, former White House adviser Steve Bannon and former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.
Last week, Bannon’s lawyer told the committee that his client will defy its subpoena, abiding by Trump’s request that his former aides and advisers invoke executive immunity in order to avoid handing over documents or giving testimony.
The panel vowed to consider referring uncooperative witnesses for criminal contempt of Congress in response to Bannon’s defiance of its subpoena.
“While Mr. Meadows and Mr. Patel are, so far, engaging with the Select Committee, Mr. Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President,” Thompson and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in a statement last week.
Following the committee’s statement, the White House declined to assert executive privilege on Trump’s behalf, declining the former president’s efforts to block Jan. 6 records from Congress.
On Tuesday evening, Cheney reiterated the panel’s vow to advance criminal contempt charges against those who refuse to comply with its subpoenas.
“In general, people are going to have to appear, or, you know, we will move contempt charges against them,” Cheney said, according to Reuters.
Read the letter below:
