Jan. 6 panel subpoenas former DOJ official Clark
WASHINGTON >> The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot issued a subpoena Wednesday to Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official under President Donald Trump who was involved in Trump’s frenzied efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The subpoena seeks testimony and records from Clark, a little-known official who repeatedly pushed his colleagues at the Department of Justice to help Trump undo his loss. The panel’s focus on him indicates that it is deepening its scrutiny of the root causes of the attack, which disrupted a congressional session called to count the electoral votes formalizing President Joe Biden’s victory.
“The select committee needs to understand all the details about efforts inside the previous administration to delay the certification of the 2020 election and amplify misinformation about the election results,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and the committee chairperson, said in a statement. “We need to understand Mr. Clark’s role in these efforts at the Justice Department and learn who was involved across the administration.”
The subpoena was the 19th issued in the House inquiry, and it came as the panel braced for a potential legal battle with at least one prospective witness, Stephen Bannon, a former adviser to Trump who has refused to cooperate. The leaders of the committee threatened last week to seek criminal charges against Bannon in response.
Robert J. Costello, a lawyer for Bannon, did not back down in a letter to the committee Wednesday, reiterating that his client would not produce documents or testimony “until such time as you reach an agreement with President Trump” on claims of executive privilege “or receive a court ruling.”
On Wednesday, Thompson said the panel “expects Mr. Clark to cooperate fully with our investigation.”