Jan. 6 Panel Seeks Contempt Charge for Jeffrey Clark

WASHINGTON — The Dwelling committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot moved on Wednesday to hold Jeffrey Clark in prison contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with its inquiry, but agreed to delay a Household vote on the make a difference as the former Justice Section attorney created an 11th-hour give to be interviewed again.

The panel voted unanimously to advise charging Mr. Clark, who had pressed his colleagues at the Justice Department to go after President Donald J. Trump’s election fraud claims, just after he refused to solution any issues or create any paperwork at a deposition with its investigators previous month.

The vote paved the way for the whole Home to shift rapidly to get in touch with on the Justice Section to prosecute Mr. Clark for his refusal to cooperate with the panel’s subpoena. But shortly just before the committee fulfilled to approve it, Mr. Clark experienced requested a hold off of the proceedings, giving to sit down with the panel once again.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the committee’s chairman, claimed it would go forward with the contempt referral in any case, calling Mr. Clark’s attraction “a past-ditch attempt to hold off.”

“The pick out committee has no drive to be positioned in this scenario, but Mr. Clark has still left us no other option,” Mr. Thompson additional. “He chose this route. He understood what implications he could face if he did so. This committee and this Dwelling have to insist on accountability in the face of that type of defiance.”

But he announced that the panel had set a further deposition for Mr. Clark on Saturday, and that it would not search for a Residence vote on the contempt demand right up until investigators experienced decided whether he was inclined to cooperate.

It was not quickly distinct to what extent Mr. Clark prepared to do so. In a letter to the panel on Tuesday, he provided a new rationale for refusing to answer queries, asserting his Fifth Modification suitable from self-incrimination. Mr. Thompson reported Mr. Clark would be permitted to invoke that ideal “on a question-by-dilemma basis” through the future interview.

The final time the committee’s investigators sat down with Mr. Clark, they experienced a extended listing of concerns about his purpose in trying to assist Mr. Trump invalidate his 2020 election defeat.

They wished to inquire Mr. Clark about a national intelligence briefing he experienced sought about a wild principle that China could hack voting equipment by thermostats. They planned to press him about a letter he experienced proposed composing to legislative officials in Ga, urging them to put ahead an different slate of electors for Mr. Trump, instead of President Biden, who experienced received the state. And they desired to dig into any conversations he may have had with a group of Mr. Trump’s allies who experienced collected at a Washington, D.C., lodge in the days before the riot to approach the exertion to overturn the election.

Mr. Clark presented no solutions.

“We will not be answering any thoughts or developing any documents,” Mr. Clark’s lawyer, Harry W. MacDougald, stated flatly.

The vote was the next these confrontation in between the committee and an ally of Mr. Trump since Congress started investigating the situation encompassing the Capitol riot, including the previous president’s attempts to subvert the election.

The Residence voted in Oct to advise that yet another of Mr. Trump’s associates, Stephen K. Bannon, be charged with criminal contempt of Congress for stonewalling the inquiry. A federal grand jury subsequently indicted him on two counts that could have a full of up to two years driving bars.

A 3rd recalcitrant witness, Mark Meadows, a White House main of workers underneath Mr. Trump, attained an agreement with the committee on Tuesday to supply files and surface voluntarily for a deposition. It is a noteworthy reversal for a critical witness in the inquiry, even though it is not distinct how a lot facts he will be eager to provide.

The committee has interviewed additional than 200 witnesses and issued 45 subpoenas. On Tuesday, the panel listened to five hours of closed-door testimony from Georgia’s secretary of condition, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who pushed back again towards Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the election final results there.

Some of the panel’s most sought-just after witnesses, like Mr. Meadows Dan Scavino Jr., a former deputy main of personnel and Kash Patel, a former Pentagon chief of employees, are scheduled to testify, Mr. Thompson reported.

Less than federal regulation, any particular person summoned as a congressional witness who refuses to comply can face a misdemeanor charge that carries a fantastic of $100 to $100,000 and a jail sentence of just one month to a person yr.

In rebuffing the committee’s Oct subpoena, Mr. Clark reported his discussions with Mr. Trump were being safeguarded by lawyer-consumer privilege and the former president’s assertion of executive privilege.

Mr. MacDougald explained to the committee last thirty day period that he and Mr. Clark interpreted government privilege to protect discussions and documents that did not contain Mr. Trump.

“The privileges that are beneath the over-all umbrella of govt privilege are several,” Mr. MacDougald reported.

He also cited law enforcement privilege and deliberative procedure privilege. “There are any range,” he included.

Mr. Trump has submitted match from the committee, in search of to block its entry to hundreds of White House files, though a federal appeals court on Tuesday appeared skeptical of his claim that he has the electric power to block the panel’s desire for White Home information linked to the assault on the Capitol.

The Biden administration has declined to assert privilege around the documents, arguing that no such security ought to be afforded to materials that could get rid of gentle on a president’s makes an attempt to undermine a democratic election.