How lawmaker aided Trump election scheme

WASHINGTON — When Rep. Scott Perry joined his colleagues in a monthslong campaign to undermine the results of the presidential election, promoting “Stop the Steal” events and supporting an attempt to overturn millions of legally cast votes, he often took a back seat to higherprofile loyalists in President Donald Trump’s orbit.

But Perry, RPa., played a significant role in the crisis that played out at the top of the Justice Department this month, when Trump considered firing the acting attorney general and backed down only after top department officials threatened to resign en masse.

It was Perry, an outspoken member of the hardline Freedom Caucus, who first made Trump aware that a relatively obscure Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, acting chief of the civil division, was sympathetic to Trump’s view that the election had been stolen, according to former administration officials who spoke with Clark and Trump.

Perry introduced the president to Clark, whose openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Trump with a welcome change from the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president’s efforts to undo them.

Perry’s previously unreported role, and the quiet discussions between Trump and Clark that followed, underlined how much the former president was willing to use the government to subvert the election, turning to more junior and relatively unknown figures for help as ranking Republicans and Cabinet members rebuffed him.

Perry’s involvement is also likely to heighten scrutiny of House Republicans who continue to advance Trump’s false and thoroughly debunked claims of election fraud, even after President Biden’s inauguration last week and as Congress prepares for an impeachment trial that will examine whether such talk incited the Capitol riot.

It is unclear when Perry, who represents the Harrisburg area, met Clark, a Philadelphia native, or how well they knew each another before the introduction to Trump. Former Trump administration officials said it was only in late December that Clark told Rosen about the introduction brokered by Perry, who was among the scores of people feeding Trump false hope that he had won the election.

As the date to affirm Biden’s victory neared, Perry and Clark discussed having the Justice Department send a letter to Georgia lawmakers informing them of a probe into voter fraud that could invalidate the state’s Electoral College results. Former officials who were briefed on the plan said the department’s dozens of voter fraud investigations nationwide had not turned up enough instances of fraud to alter the outcome of the election.

Perry and Clark also discussed the plan with Trump, setting off a chain of events that nearly led to the ouster of Rosen, who had refused to send the letter.

After the New York Times disclosed the details of the scheme Friday, the political fallout was swift. Sen. Dick Durbin, DIll., said he intends to tell the Justice Department that he will investigate efforts by Trump and Clark to use the agency to further Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election.

Clark declined to comment on his relationship with Perry, and he categorically denied devising any plan to oust Rosen.

Neither Perry nor his top aides responded to repeated requests for comment.