Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in new court filings sought to justify becoming involved with Georgia’s 2020 presidential election by arguing former President Trump had an “unqualified and illimitable right” to change his job responsibilities.
Clark, who is charged in Georgia alongside Trump and 17 others over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, heads to court on Monday to convince a judge to move his state prosecution to federal court, which would enable him to attempt to assert immunity.
To move courts, Clark must show that the allegations against him were within the scope of his duties as a federal official, among other things.
Clark is charged with two counts over his desire to send a letter to Georgia authorities asking them to hold off on certifying their election results while the department investigated. He is accused of being part of a months-long conspiracy to unlawfully keep Trump in power. Clark pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have rejected the notion that the letter could have fallen within Clark’s job responsibilities. Clark at the time oversaw the Justice Department’s environmental division and, in an acting capacity, the civil division.
“The President has the unqualified and illimitable right to seek and obtain such advice from his senior legal advisors,” Clark’s attorneys pushed back in the new court filings.
They noted a meeting Clark had with Trump and other senior administration lawyers on Jan. 3, 2021, at which Trump initially desired sending the letter and appointing Clark as attorney general. He ultimately did not do so, however.
“This act by the President conclusively ratified that Mr. Clark’s responsibilities included the election-related issues discussed in the draft letter, and that all of his charged conduct was under color of law,” Clark’s attorneys said of the meeting.
Court filings show Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s (D) office has subpoenaed Jody Hunt, who ran the Justice Department’s civil rights division earlier in the Trump administration, to testify at Monday’s hearing.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, who will preside, has already rejected a request from one of Clark’s co-defendants to move their charges to federal court.
Jones ruled that the allegations against Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, were political activities outside the scope of his job responsibilities. Meadows is now appealing.
Three other co-defendants in the case are also trying to move their charges, and Jones will hold a hearing to consider their effort on Wednesday.
Trump has also suggested he, too, could soon follow in their footsteps.