Federal agents search home of Trump DOJ official
WASHINGTON — Federal agents conducted a search Wednesday at the home of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who played a key role in President Donald Trump’s efforts to get law enforcement officials to challenge Joe Biden’s election victory.
The search was confirmed by Mr. Clark’s current employer, who said in a written message that agents led a pajama-clad Mr. Clark out of his house in suburban Virginia in the early morning and “took his electronic devices.”
Asked whether federal authorities were at the home in Lorton on Wednesday, around the same time that federal agents were delivering subpoenas and taking other investigative steps around the country, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia confirmed that “there was law enforcement activity in that general area yesterday.”
“We have no comment regarding the nature of that activity, or any particular individuals,” the spokesman said.
Mr. Clark, an environmental lawyer, now works at the Center for Renewing America, a conservative advocacy group. His boss there, Russell Vought, who during the Trump administration was director of the Office of Management and Budget, offered this description of the search:
“Yesterday, more than a dozen DOJ law enforcement officials searched Jeff Clark’s house in a predawn raid, put him in the streets in his PJs, and took his electronic devices. All because Jeff saw fit to investigate voter fraud. This is not America, folks. ... We stand by Jeff and so must all patriots in this country.”
Mr. Clark’s attorney, Harry W. MacDougald, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Clark’s conduct in late 2020 and early 2021 was the focus of a hearing Thursday afternoon by the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters determined to overturn Mr. Biden’s presidential victory.
The search of his home was carried out in conjunction with what appears to be a significant expansion of the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation, now reaching far beyond the rioters who stormed the Capitol that day. Federal investigators are also exploring efforts by Mr. Trump and his supporters to try to undo Mr. Biden’s victories in a halfdozen key states — a plan that centered around trying to create legitimacy for bogus slates of alternate electors in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and elsewhere.
As part of that prong of the investigation, federal agents on Wednesday served a subpoena to David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, who served as a Trump elector in that state, as well as to a lawyer in Georgia and a former Trump campaign official who worked in Arizona and New Mexico.
Many of the subpoenas served Wednesday seek copies of communications with leading figures in the falseelectors efforts, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case.