Feds Reportedly Search Trump DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark’s Home

Topline

Federal law enforcement agents on Wednesday searched the home of Trump-era Department of Justice lawyer Jeffrey Clark, whose push to pursue shaky voter fraud claims following the 2020 election caused uproar at the DOJ, multiple news outlets reported Thursday.

Key Facts

It’s not clear which federal agencies searched Clark’s suburban Virginia home or why, but unnamed sources told the New York Times the search was tied to the DOJ’s probe into the push to reverse former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.

William Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C., told Forbes “there was law enforcement activity” near Lorton, Virginia, where Clark reportedly resides, but he did not comment on the nature of the activity or its targets.

Forbes has reached out to the DOJ, Clark and his attorney for comment.

Key Background

A once-obscure environmental lawyer, Clark was appointed head of the DOJ’s civil division in the final months of the Trump Administration. After Trump lost the 2020 election and Attorney General William Barr stepped down, Clark pushed the DOJ to more firmly back Trump’s evidence-free voter fraud allegations, sometimes conferring with Trump directly, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation. In emails to colleagues in late December 2020, Clark argued the DOJ should send a letter to legislators in Georgia—which President Joe Biden narrowly won—encouraging them to consider picking a new slate of electors, an idea rejected by senior DOJ leaders. Trump reportedly mulled making Clark attorney general in the final weeks of his term, but the then-president backed down after the DOJ’s leadership threatened mass resignations at the agency’s top levels.

What To Watch For

Clark is expected to be a focus of Thursday’s House January 6 committee hearing, which will look at Trump’s efforts to pressure the DOJ into helping him overturn the 2020 election results. Trump and his allies repeatedly urged the department to open dubious voter fraud investigations, and suggested filing a brief asking the Supreme Court to toss out Biden’s swing state wins, the Senate Judiciary Committee found.

Contra

The January 6 committee subpoenaed Clark last year, but he pushed back and argued the information sought by lawmakers was protected by both attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. After the committee voted to recommend contempt of Congress charges, Clark eventually sat for a deposition, but he reportedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times.

Tangent

On Wednesday, federal agents also subpoenaed several people involved in a Trump campaign-backed scheme to submit “alternate slates of electors” falsely claiming Trump—not Biden—won in multiple swing states, the Washington Post reported. One of the alternate electors who got a subpoena was Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer, according to the Post and CNN (Forbes has reached out to Shafer for comment).