Jeffrey Clark, the former high-ranking Justice Department official who played a key role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, may be held in contempt of Congress later this week.
In response to a subpoena, Clark appeared before the the House committee probing the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, but he refused to answer substantive questions. He claimed that Trump and members of his administration are entitled to executive privilege.
The House committee will meet Wednesday to decide if they should refer contempt of Congress charges against Clark to the entire lower chamber.
“It’s astounding that someone who so recently held a position of public trust to uphold the Constitution would now hide behind vague claims of privilege by a former President, refuse to answer questions about an attack on our democracy, and continue an assault on the rule of law,” the committee’s chairman, Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), said in a statement earlier this month.
In October, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report indicating that Clark was eager to open an official DOJ investigation into voter fraud, even though no evidence existed to support the investigation. According to the report, Trump considered installing Clark as acting attorney general, but top DOJ brass threatened to resign en masse if such a move was made.
CBS News adds:
The report found that as an assistant attorney general, Clark proposed urging state legislators in Georgia to delay the certification of the Senate election there. The committee also said he pleaded with Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general at the time, to hold a press conference and say “there was corruption” in the election despite no evidence there was.
The House voted to refer contempt charges against Steve Bannon in October. Earlier this month, the DOJ officially filed those charges. Bannon faces up to two years in jail.
More from CBS News:
Clark is one of many Trump allies to be subpoenaed by the committee, including Stephen Miller, and Kayleigh McEnany, and the committee’s leaders have hinted that more contempt charges could be in the pipeline for those who don’t comply. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows refused to sit with the committee earlier this month. In a statement at the time, Thompson and Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, said Meadows was unwilling to answer even basic questions about January 6.
“Mr. Meadows’s actions today—choosing to defy the law—will force the Select Committee to consider pursuing contempt or other proceedings to enforce the subpoena,” Thompson and Cheney said in a statement at the time.
