Jeffrey Clark Jan 3 to TFG: "name me attorney general to remain in power"

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/14/inside-explosive-oval-office-confrontation-three-days-before-jan-6/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F37193a1%2F62a8afd4956121755ab8ad09%2F5adfa960ade4e26417b9dae7%2F9%2F72%2F62a8afd4956121755ab8ad09

Inside the explosive Oval Office confrontation three days before Jan. 6
Jeffrey Clark, a mid-level Justice Department official, wanted Trump to name him attorney general in a plan aimed at potentially overturning the election

By Michael Kranish June 14, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=691

Three days before Congress was slated to certify the 2020 presidential election, a little-known Justice Department official named Jeffrey Clark rushed to meet President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss a last-ditch attempt to reverse the results.

Clark, an environmental lawyer by trade, had outlined a plan in a letter he wanted to send to the leaders of key states Joe Biden won. It said that the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns” about the vote and that the states should consider sending “a separate slate of electors supporting Donald J. Trump” for Congress to approve.

In fact, Clark’s bosses had warned there was not evidence to overturn the election and had rejected his letter days earlier. Now they learned Clark was about to meet with Trump. Acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen tracked down his deputy, Richard Donoghue, who had been walking on the Mall in muddy jeans and an Army T-shirt. There was no time to change. They raced to the Oval Office.

Clark’s letter and his Oval Office meeting set off one of the tensest chapters during Trump’s effort to overturn the election, which culminated three days later with rioters storming the U.S. Capitol. His plan could have decapitated the Justice Department leadership and could have overturned the election.

[Sneederbunk]

1. Why is Clark not disbarred?

[malaise]

9. He should die in prison

That is all

[exboyfil]

2. History books will note how virtually all of the GOP supported these behaviors

Refused to impeach him then and would still refuse to impeach him now.

This "attorney" should be disbarred. He actually should be in jail.

[empedocles]

3. DOJ has not forgotten clark

[madaboutharry]

4. The full article doesn't do Clark any favors.

What an asshole!

Ambitious underlings are often the most dangerous.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Traitor

Lock him up.

[dalton99a]

6. This Koch whore Jeffrey Clark is a dangerous asshole

Around the time Donoghue entered, Clark was telling Trump that if he became attorney general he would “conduct real investigations that would, in his view, uncover widespread fraud,” Donoghue said in his House deposition. Clark vowed to send the letter he drafted to Georgia and other states and said that “this was a last opportunity to sort of set things straight with this defective election, and that he could do it, and he had the intelligence and the will and the desire to pursue these matters in the way that the president thought most appropriate.”

Everyone else in the room told Trump they opposed Clark, Donoghue said.

Trump repeatedly went after Rosen and Donoghue, saying they hadn’t pursued voter fraud allegations.

“You two,” Trump said, pointing to the two top Justice Department officials. “You two haven’t done anything. You two don’t care. You haven’t taken appropriate actions. Everyone tells me I should fire you.”

Donoghue warned Trump that putting Clark in charge would be likely to lead to mass resignations at the Justice Department.

Donoghue then told Trump that Clark had no qualification to be attorney general: “He’s never been a criminal attorney. He’s never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. He’s never been in front of a grand jury, much less a trial jury.”

Clark objected.

“Well, I’ve done a lot of very complicated appeals and civil litigation, environmental litigation, and things like that,” Clark said, according to Donoghue’s deposition.

“That’s right,” Donoghue said he responded. “You’re an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill.”

[C_U_L8R]

8. "We'll call you when there's an oil spill."

Go get your friggin shinebox, Clarkie.

[gratuitous]

7. It could have decapitated the Justice Department

But there's no way Clark's little escapade was going to overturn the election. It simply wasn't going to happen, at least not this time around. We need to be alert for next time, because the Republicans will have learned where they botched the incredibly intricate and difficult process to overturn the election in 2020. But this notion that the hare-brained scheme cooked up by the former guy had any chance of success is just ludicrous.

Again, we should be vigilant to stop the Republicans from stealing the 2024 election (they'll most certainly be better organized), but the former guy had a better chance of hitting a hole-in-one blindfolded on the sixth hole at Carnoustie than stealing the 2020 election. The Post should know better.