Trump DOJ lawyer Jeffrey Clark to testify before Jan. 6 panel Friday

Jeffrey Clark, a former mid-level lawyer at the Department of Justice (DOJ) implicated in former President Trump’s pressure campaign to get the DOJ to forward his claims of election fraud, will testify before the Jan. 6 committee on Friday, The Hill has learned.

Clark, who was subpoenaed by the committee in October, was set to appear before the committee last week, but got a brief delay after splitting with his attorney. A source familiar confirmed that Clark will sit for a closed door deposition with investigators from the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 

Clark, the former acting Civil Division assistant attorney general, won Trump’s favor after being introduced to the president by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), another staunch defender of Trump’s efforts in the days after he lost the election.

Clark was also a key figure in a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into Trump’s pressure campaign at the DOJ during his waning days in office, forwarding letters then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone described as a “murder-suicide pact.”

“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,” the House panel wrote in its subpoena. 

As Clark made little headway with top ranking DOJ officials, he informed them that Trump planned to fire then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and appoint Clark instead, prompting a slew of Justice officials to threaten to resign and Trump to abandon the plan.

The subpoena from the Jan. 6 panel also focuses on Clark’s engagement with the White House.

“You engaged in unauthorized investigation of allegations of voter fraud and failed to abide by the department’s policy on contacts with the White House,” they wrote.