Federal investigators on Wednesday searched the home of Jeff Clark, a former top Justice Department official in the Trump administration, in connection with the wide-ranging inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
In the weeks after the 2020 election, Clark emerged as a top DOJ official willing to assist President Donald Trump as he pressured the Justice Department to back his baseless claims of voter fraud and overturn his loss to Joe Biden. Clark, the Senate-confirmed head of the Justice Department's environmental division, stood ready to take over the Justice Department to advance Trump's scheme to reverse the election.
But Trump ultimately backed down from naming him acting attorney general after several of his own top Justice Department appointees said they would resign.
ABC first reported the search of Clark's home in the Washington, DC, suburbs. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to Insider that there was law enforcement activity in the area of Lorton, Virginia, where Clark lives, but declined to comment on the nature of that activity or on any particular individuals.
The search of Clark's home came on the eve of a congressional hearing that is expected to highlight the effort by Trump and his allies to throw the weight of the Justice Department behind his false claims of election fraud. At 3 pm on Thursday, three former Justice Department leaders are set to testify before the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack about their experience pushing back against that unprecedented pressure campaign.
Clark joined a conservative legal group, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, following the Trump administration. But he left soon after the House January 6 committee subpoenaed him and the Senate Judiciary Committee released an interim report — titled "Subverting Justice" — on its own investigation into Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.
This is a developing story.