That included Trump, with Clark’s help, pushing for the fraudulent slates of electors. The likely fraud involved interfering with government functions to prevent the legitimate winner of the election from taking office. § 371) and to obstruct an official congressional proceeding (under 18 U.S.C. And Trump’s exposure got worse.Īmong other potential crimes, their exposure may fit within the “likely” criminal conspiracy (in the words of a federal judge in California) to defraud the United States (18 U.S.C. With the raid and the hearing, we learned two big things: Clark is at severe risk of criminal prosecution. Both the raid on his premises and the content of Thursday’s hearing suggested he had good reason. That was capped off with breaking news of federal investigators executing a search warrant on the Virginia home of the main player (besides Trump) of the hearing that followed, Clark.Ĭlark infamously tried to help Trump overthrow DOJ leadership and overturn the election, resulting in his taking the Fifth Amendment over 100 times in his deposition before the committee. In the 24 hours before the hearings, news broke of multiple subpoenas, including search warrants, relating to the federal criminal investigation of the phony elector scheme. Thursday was notable because more than any of the other hearings, it occurred against the backdrop of significant outside events that were closely related to the subject matter of the hearing. Adam Kinzinger and supplemented by the frequently explosive video testimony of other key players, making for another powerful day. They were examined in a hearing led by Republican Rep. Donoghue and the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, assistant attorney general Steven Engel. Rosen, former acting deputy attorney general Richard P. The live witnesses were former acting attorney general Jeffrey A. We outline what the legal significance of what we learned in the hearing about Trump’s efforts, Clark’s role and more in the fifth edition of our criminal evidence tracker. Thursday’s fifth hearing of committee focused on former President Donald Trump’s campaign to misuse his own Department of Justice in his efforts to overturn an election he lost, and in particular the role of his main collaborator at DOJ, former DOJ assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark. 6 select committee, we are publishing the updated criminal evidence tracker (available below and as a PDF). In advance of tomorrow’s snap hearing of the Jan.
Eisen, Fred Wertheimer, Jason Powell, Debra Perlin, Colby Galliher and Madison Gee