The focus of the House of Representatives’ fifth hearing on Jan. 6 found findings of President Trump’s attempts to involve the Justice Department in plans to help him cancel the 2020 presidential election, as well as a department official who tried to help him, Jeffrey Clark.
Here are some of the highlights and new revelations:
Who is Jeffrey Clark and how did Trump meet him?
- Clark was Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from 2018 to 2021.
- According to former senior Justice officials, he has never prosecuted or conducted a criminal investigation when he and Trump planned to oust the acting attorney general and take over as a senior law enforcement official in the country.
- Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen learned that Trump only met Clark on December 24, 2020, when Trump made a “special” reference to Clark during a discussion of electoral fraud. Rosen recalled that he was puzzled by the mention of Clark, as the Department of the Environment was not involved in the investigation of voter fraud.
- Republican spokesman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania introduced Clark to Trump, taking him to a White House meeting on Dec. 22, the committee said.
- Police searched Clark’s home Thursday morning.
What the witnesses said about Jeffrey Clark
Clark pushed the idea of sending a letter to the Department of Justice, calling on state legislators in Georgia to postpone the certification of the election, citing suspicion of voter fraud. Former White House attorney Eric Hershman told the commission in recorded testimony: “Clark’s proposal was crazy. I mean, this is a man … best I can say, the only thing you know about environmental and election challenges is that they both start with “E.”
Former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donohue said he told Clark why he was “not even competent” to be attorney general: “He has never been a criminal lawyer, he has never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. He has never was before a grand jury, much less a jury. ”
Donog remembered Clark’s line: “Well, I’ve made very, very complex appeals and civil cases, environmental lawsuits …” And I said, “That’s right. You are an environmental lawyer. How about going back to your office and we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill. ”
Trump’s efforts to appoint Clark as attorney general
Appointing Clark as Attorney General would entitle him to use the authority of the Department of Justice to try to overturn the election results.
The White House call records of January 3, 2021, show that the White House had already mentioned Clark as acting attorney general, but Clark’s promotion was not sealed. The assistant attorney general threatened to resign en masse if Trump promoted Clark, as he had indicated he would. “Everyone said without hesitation that they would resign,” Donohue said on Thursday.
Engel told Trump that if he appointed Clark, “the story will not be that the Department of Justice has uncovered massive corruption that would change the election results – this will be the crash of Jeff Clark.”
Sidney Powell says Trump has asked her to be a special adviser to investigate the election
Powell, a former pro-Trump lawyer who is fighting to overturn election results in several states, told the commission in recorded testimony that Trump “asked me to be a special adviser to deal with election issues and gather evidence.” The New York Times first reported that Trump had considered the idea, but it was the first time Powell had openly acknowledged it.
Trump’s campaign distanced itself from it after Powell falsely claimed that millions of votes had been transferred from Trump to Biden. She also popularized the conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems was founded to help Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Many Republican congressmen demanded pardon
Witnesses told the select committee that Trump was considering offering pardon to a wide range of people associated with the president. pic.twitter.com/LRJat3Algf
– Committee on 6 January (@ January6thCmte) 23 June 2022
White House officials told the commission in recorded testimony that many members of the Republican House had asked the White House for presidential pardons: representatives of Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Goetz of Florida, Louis Gomert of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Perry, according to the former. White Domestic Assistant Cassidy Hutchinson.
Five days after the Capitol riots, Brooks emailed a White House aide to offer a full pardon for “every congressman and senator who votes to reject the Arizona and Pennsylvania Electoral College’s bidding proposals.”
After the hearing, Brooks shared an email he sent to CBS News, saying: “There were fears that Democrats would abuse the judiciary by prosecuting and imprisoning Republicans who acted in accordance with their constitutional or legal obligations under 3 USC 15. Fortunately, over time, more rational forces took power and no one was prosecuted for performing their legal duties, which means that pardon was not necessary after all. “
The committee has not yet spoken to Ginny Thomas
On January 6, the chairman of the commission, Benny Thompson, said after the hearing that the elected commission had not yet spoken to Ginny Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The commission initially said it had no plans to speak with her, but recent emails revealed that she was in correspondence with Trump’s ally, attorney John Eastman. She responded to a letter from the committee, “and we look forward to continuing to engage with her,” Thompson said earlier this week.
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