Your Evening Briefing: Jeffrey Clark’s 2020 Election ‘Murder-Suicide Pact’

Having already painted a picture of Donald Trump allegedly directing or at the very least being keenly aware of a wide-ranging plan to subvert the 2020 US presidential election, the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday moved to depict how the former president and his aides sought to use the formidable authority of the Department of Justice to keep him in power. Key to this unprecedented endeavor, the committee argued, was a letter written by a midlevel environmental lawyer—to be signed by top Justice Department officials—falsely claiming election fraud in swing states. The unsent letter, electronic message evidence and testimony by senior members of the Trump Justice Department combined today to describe what panel members said was a desperate effort to erase the election of Joe Biden and keep Trump at the head of the American government. The strategy, according to Select Committee Chair and Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, was to help Trump “steal an election he already lost.”

Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, led Thursday’s hearing as former Justice Department leaders described how Jeffrey Clark—a DOJ lawyer who text messages showed was pushed forward by Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry—asked to be put in charge of the Justice Department. The request allegedly came as Trump was scrambling for ways to slow the transfer of power, with messages between Meadows and Perry discussing strategies to undercut state vote tallies. When previously interviewed by the committee, Clark repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination. This week, the Justice Department as part of its criminal investigation searched his home, and a federal grand jury issued nine subpoenas to officials in four states as part of its inquiry into the alleged effort to use fake electors.