Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who tried to help then-President Donald Trump carry out his plan to overturn the 2020 election, had a rough day on Thursday.
His name was invoked by former DOJ officials throughout the House Jan. 6 committee’s hearing on Thursday, detailing his willingness to go along with Trump’s anti-democratic plot.
Several of them said Clark was an incompetent-yet-servile stooge whom Trump wanted to lead the DOJ and carry out his fake Electoral College voters scheme. Clark’s critics included former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue. Both said they told Trump how inept — and unlawful — Clark would be as attorney general.
And believe it or not, that wasn’t the worst of the day for Clark. Mere hours before he was torched on television, Clark’s home was searched by the federal law enforcement agents. Officials haven’t said whether the search was related to Clark’s alleged cooperation with Trump’s coup attempt, but Clark effectively confirmed it while whining during an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson later that night.
Although he stands accused of aiding an authoritarian plot to keep Trump in power, Clark absurdly claimed it was actually federal investigators who behaved like fascists.
Clark: don't recognize this country anymore with these kinds of stasi like things happening. pic.twitter.com/tXTAjRrduA
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 24, 2022
Clark even suggested that federal agents dropping subpoenas on multiple people tied to the fake electors scheme on Thursday amounted to some nefarious government conspiracy. In reality, this is how federal investigations are conducted — and if Clark were even remotely competent, he would know this.
Clark says the raids seem coordinated. He also says that Sean Penn attending today’s hearing shows that it’s Hollywood pic.twitter.com/1mLnWgo2Oy
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 24, 2022
Clark is just the most recent Trump-linked figure to publicly complain about their interactions with law enforcement amid allegations of serious misconduct. It’s always been a rich complaint coming from people supportive of a man who believed in using the DOJ for personal gain. Earlier this month, former Trump adviser Peter Navarro threw a public tantrum — also on Carlson’s show — after he was arrested on contempt of Congress charges.
Federal agents searched former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s home last year amid a federal investigation into his business dealings in Ukraine. He wasn’t very happy about that at the time.
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen was a bit more subdued when the feds searched his home in 2018, saying he was “unhappy” that his property was “raided.”
It’s still unclear what the result of federal agents visiting Clark’s home will be, but it’s abundantly clear he’s quite concerned about what investigators might have turned up.
The House Jan. 6 committee is holding its sixth public hearing on Tuesday, June 28 at 1 p.m. ET. Get expert analysis in real-time on our liveblog at msnbc.com/jan6hearings.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.