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The select committee of the House of Representatives investigating the assault on the Capitol on January 6 cited Jeffrey Clark , a Justice Department official who was instrumental in helping then-president Donald Trump in its efforts to revoke the elections of 2020, announced the committee on Wednesday.
Former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen also met in person with the committee for about eight hours on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Rosen held office during the last days of the administration Trump , according to CNN.
Investigations by both officials underscore the panel’s interest in learning more about how Trump attempted to pressure senior officials to investigate allegations of voter fraud during the former president’s final days in office, a topic that the committee says is a focal point of its extensive investigation into the events. around January 6.
Clark and Rosen featured heavily in a recent report issued by Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which highlighted the relentlessness of Trump and some of his top advisers as they became obsessed with using the Justice Department to prop up false conspiracy theories about the elections.
The Senate report, which provided the most comprehensive account yet of Trump’s efforts to reverse the election to date , described his conduct as an abuse of presidential power.
While select committee chair Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, previously said the panel views the Senate report as a useful resource in its investigation , the committee now makes it clear that it wants to hear directly from exfu Department of Justice officials.
Jeff Clark , appointed as the chief of environmental law appointed by Trump at the Department of Justice, has become an important figure in the emerging narrative about the behind-the-scenes efforts of Trump and his closest allies to orchestrate a coup of leadership in the Justice Department and selling lies about election fraud.
Washington Post was the first to report that Clark could be subpoenaed on Wednesday. Politico first reported about Wednesday’s interview committee with Rosen .
Based on documents discovered by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which did its own investigation, Clark drafted a letter on 28 to Georgia officials in which he falsely claimed that the Department of Justice had found voting irregularities that affected presidential election results in several state.
By then, the Justice Department had made it clear that it found no evidence of election fraud. Clark wanted Rosen and Donoghue to sign the draft letter, but they both refused.
Clark’s subpoena letter occurs when the committee faces a big week of subpoena deadlines for people they have previously served. Kash Patel and Steve Bannon are scheduled for depositions on Thursday, and Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino are scheduled for depositions the following day.
While the committee has shared that Patel and Meadows are engaging with them, only recently were they able to successfully serve the subpoenas to Scavino, and Bannon has thus far been uncooperative.