Feds search home of Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark

Federal investigators descended on the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, on Wednesday as part of the department’s sprawling probe into efforts to nullify the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

It was unclear exactly what investigators were looking for, but Mr. Clark played a pivotal role in President Donald J. Trump’s failed efforts in late 2020 to force the nation’s top prosecutors to support his election fraud allegations.

The law enforcement action at Mr. Clark’s home in suburban Virginia came just a day before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is set to hold a hearing examining Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department after his election defeat.

The audience had to explore The role of Mr. Clark to help Mr. Trump bend the department to his will and ultimately help persuade officials in several key states to change the outcome of their elections.

Mr. Trump considered and then scrapped a plan in the days before the Jan. 6 attack to put Mr. Clark in charge of the Justice Department as acting attorney general. At the time, Mr. Clark was offering to send a letter to Georgia state officials falsely stating that the department had evidence that could cause Georgia to rescind its certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. in this key state.

The search of Mr. Clark’s home also came as a federal grand jury continued to issue subpoenas to at least eight people in four different states who were implicated in a plan by Mr. Trump and his allies to to subvert the normal functioning of the electoral process by creating fake lists of pro-Trump voters in states that were in fact won by Mr. Biden.

Mr. Clark did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Mr. Clark, who was once the acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, helped draft a letter in late December 2020 to Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia stating — without evidence — that the Justice Department had identified “ significant concerns” about the “election outcome” in Georgia and several other states. The letter advised Mr. Kemp, a Republican, to call a special session of his state legislature to create “a separate list of voters supporting Donald J. Trump.”

Mr. Clark pressured then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen to sign and send the letter to Mr. Kemp, but Mr. Rosen refused. Mr. Rosen is due to testify before the House committee during its hearing on Thursday.

Katie Benner contributed report.