Former Trump White House lawyer reveals new details about Trump’s 2020 election ploy: report

26 March 2024

As Jeffrey Clark, ex-US Department of Justice official and Donald Trump co-defendant in the Georgia 2020 election interference case faces the possibility of losing his law license, according to Politico, new details regarding Clark's role in Trump's ploy to overturn the election came to light Tuesday.

Per Politico, During Clark's March 26 disbarment hearing in Washington, DC, former Trump Deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin gave "his first public testimony about the chaotic final days of the Trump presidency since" leaving his post in 2021.

"I believe that he felt that he essentially had a duty," Philbin said, according to the report, of his longtime colleague. "I think Jeff’s view was that there was a real crisis in the country and that he was being given an opportunity to do something about it."

In the days leading up to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol — as Joe Biden was set to be confirmed as president, Politico reports, "Trump had suddenly resuscitated a plan to replace the leadership of the Justice Department with Jeffrey Clark, a little known DOJ official who Trump expected to mount a sweeping nationwide effort to help him remain in power."

The former Trump White House counsel, according to Politico, "described Clark as wildly misinformed about claims of election fraud — countenancing a theory about 'smart thermostats' being used to manipulate voting machines — and not sufficiently cognizant of the havoc it would wreak on the country if his plan succeeded. But he said Clark seemed '100 percent sincere' in his beliefs.'"

Furthermore, the report notes that "when Philbin warned Clark that there would be riots in every major American city if Trump reversed the outcome of the election, Clark responded, 'Well, Pat, that’s what the Insurrection Act is for,' Philbin recalled."

"I tried to explain to him that it was a bad idea for multiple reasons," Philbin emphasized in his testimony. "He would be starting down a path of assured failure … If by some miracle somehow, it worked, there’d be riots in every major city in the country and it was not an outcome the country would accept."

In mentioning "the Insurrection Act," Politico reports:

Clark, in Philbin’s telling, was referring to a 19th-century federal law that permits the president to use the military to quell civil unrest, an indication that he recognized the grave implications of his efforts. Though it was Philbin’s first time publicly discussing the exchange, the conversation was captured in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump — without naming either Philbin or Clark, though the identities of both speakers were easily discerned. On Tuesday, Philbin was asked to elaborate on this discussion.

The news outlet also notes:

Philbin was the second witness to testify in a disciplinary proceeding that could result in the loss of Clark’s license to practice law. D.C. Bar investigators have charged him with attempting to coerce DOJ leaders to embrace false claims of election fraud in order to pressure state legislators to consider reversing Trump’s defeat in Georgia and other swing states. Trump, fuming at his DOJ leadership for what he contended was a failure to pursue fraud investigations, repeatedly flirted with appointing Clark as their leader but ultimately backed down amid a mass resignation threat.

Politico's full report is available at this link.

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