JAN 6TH FALLOUT: Former Trump attorney Jeffrey Clark faces ethics violation charges
Donald Trump’s former Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark faces new charges of ethics violations. The former DOJ lawyer drafted a letter making false statements in an attempt to persuade states to overturn their certification of Joe Biden’s win.
Clark’s claim that the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia” was entirely untrue.
The charges were confirmed by Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton P. Fox III in the document outlining the accusation.
“The Department was aware of no allegations of election fraud in Georgia that would have affected the results of the presidential election. The Proof of Concept letter stated that the Department of Justice found ‘troubling the current posture of a pending lawsuit in Fulton County’ and the ‘litigation’s sluggish pace.’ This statement was false,” the disciplinary document reads.
"Jeffrey Clark, Trump’s Man at the DOJ, Now Faces Ethics Charges for ‘False Statements’ in Draft Letter on Election Outcome"@Matt_Naham reports, @LawCrimeNews https://t.co/VgeY6qScdA pic.twitter.com/C6i9AXwBzB
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) July 22, 2022
Despite being referred to the Washington D.C. bar for a professional conduct investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2021, the general public wasn’t aware of Clark’s role in helping Trump interfere in the 2020 election results until publicized testimony from former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue during televised House Select Committee hearings.
The disciplinary charges allege that despite being repeatedly told by his DOJ colleagues and superiors that his claims of election fraud were baseless, Clark continued with the conspiracy.
A day before the DOJ officials testified Clark’s home was raided by the FBI. Over a dozen federal agents searched the former official’s home and seized electronic devices.
Former Assistant Deputy AG Richard Donoghue recalled a conversation he had with then-President Trump who asked, “Suppose I do this. Suppose I replace him, Jeff Rosen, with him, Jeff Clark, what would you do?” “We resign immediately,” responded Donoghue.
The threat of department resignations worked. Preventing another “Saturday Night Massacre,” when then-President Richard Nixon fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox, triggering a mass exodus of Justice Department officials.
Though it wasn’t sent, Clark’s Proof of Concept letter shows how far the low-level Justice Dept. employee was willing to go to help Trump steal the election. Clark’s draft adds to the mounting evidence against Trump and shows the ex-President was involved in every step of the coup.
Read a copy of Clark’s draft letter here.
Original reporting by Matt Natham at Law & Crime
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick