Jan. 6 committee subpoenas former Justice Department lawyer

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena Wednesday to a former Justice Department lawyer who positioned himself as an ally of President Donald Trump and aided Trump’s efforts to challenge the results of the presidential election.

The committee on Wednesday said it has demanded documents and testimony from Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general who lent a sympathetic ear to the president’s baseless claims that the election results were fraudulent. Clark clashed with superiors during the tumultuous final weeks of the Trump administration, including during a dramatic White House meeting.

The subpoena comes one week after the release of a Senate Judiciary Committee report that documented extraordinary tensions within the senior ranks of the Justice Department in December and January as Trump and allies prodded the law enforcement agency to aid in efforts to undo the election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump’s own attorney general William Barr had said the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have overturned the results. Unsubstantiated claims of fraud have been repeatedly rejected by judge after judge, including by Trump appointees, and by election officials across the country.