Jan. 6 Probe Targets DOJ Official

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has issued a subpoena for Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official panel members view as key to the examination of the former president’s efforts to overturn election results, reports the Washington Post. The committee said it is seeking records and testimony from Clark, who sought to deploy department resources to support President Donald Trump’s false claims of massive voting fraud in the 2020 election. Negotiations between Clark’s legal team and the committee did not proceed as rapidly as the panel hoped, according to a person familiar with the conversations, which resulted in the subpoena being issued.

Clark wrote and circulated a draft letter dated Dec. 28, addressed to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) that urged officials in that state to investigate unfounded claims of fraud. Trump also entertained a plan to oust Jeffrey Rosen as acting attorney general and replace him with Clark, who was open to pursuing Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results. Meanwhile, NPR reports that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has held the District of Columbia’s corrections director and jail warden in contempt of court and asked the Justice Department to investigate whether January 6 rioter and now-inmate Christopher Worrell’s civil rights are being abused. The judge’s ruling in Worrell’s case comes after he found there was more than an “inexcusable” delay of jail officials turning over medical documents. Worrell, who broke his wrist in May, had been recommended for surgery in June but still hasn’t undergone the procedure. The move is likely to add steam to claims by activists and supporters of former President Donald Trump who have argued that defendants are being treated unfairly while they’re locked up.