Former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark met with January 6 committee for nearly two hours
By Holmes Lybrand, Annie Grayer, Ryan Nobles and Zachary Cohen, CNN
Former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark and his attorneys met with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection for nearly two hours on Wednesday, two months after the panel voted to hold him in contempt for his lack of cooperation.
Clark was seen entering a meeting room Wednesday in a building on the US Capitol Complex where the committee has routinely been interviewing witnesses.
After voting to hold Clark in contempt in December, the committee paused on proceeding because Clark said he planned to plead the Fifth Amendment. The committee then gave Clark another chance to testify, but that initial date got postponed because of a “medical condition” until Wednesday.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the chairman of the committee, said the panel has gone to great lengths to allow Clark an opportunity to cooperate.
“We’ve operated in good faith in scheduling him and kind of accommodating him,” Thompson said earlier Wednesday. “We’ll just see what develops.”
Thompson said he had not gotten a readout of the proceedings and could not say if Clark plead the Fifth Amendment, as he had previously said he would.
Clark’s interview Wednesday is expected to play a significant role in determining if the committee will take the next step in referring him to the Department of Justice.
Clark’s attorney, Harry MacDougald, said in an email to CNN: “No comment today.”
Clark is key to the panel’s investigation as he was one of the officials within the Justice Department pushing to pursue unfounded claims of voter fraud in the weeks after the 2020 election, and, according to officials who interacted with him was in touch with then-President Donald Trump repeatedly.
This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.
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