Justice watchdog to probe whether officials sought to interfere with election

Clark could not be immediately reached for comment. 

 

“Senior Justice Department lawyers, not uncommonly, provide legal advice to the White House as part of our duties. All my official communications were consistent with law,” he told the Times.

 

Democrats have seized on the report in recent days as they prepare to present their case against Trump in an unprecedented second impeachment trial next month.

The news comes just two days after Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) called on Horowitz to investigate the allegations in the Times article.

“Unconscionable a Trump Justice Department leader would conspire to subvert the people’s will,” Schumer wrote in a tweet Saturday. “The Justice Dept Inspector General must launch an investigation into this attempted sedition now.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who’s expected to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, responded to the Times report Monday by promising his own investigation into the allegations and demanding the DOJ turn over any records that might be relevant.

“The information revealed by this story raises deeply troubling questions regarding the Justice Department’s role in Trump’s scheme to overturn the election,” Durbin and a group Senate Democrats wrote in a letter to Monty Wilkinson, the acting attorney general. “The Senate Judiciary Committee will conduct vigorous oversight of these matters. As a first step, we seek your immediate assurance that the Department will preserve all relevant materials in its possession, custody, or control.”

In their letter, the Democrats drew a connection between Trump’s efforts to undermine Biden’s victory and the riot at the Capitol earlier this month that left five people dead.

Horowitz’s office this month opened a review to “examine the role and activity of DOJ and its components in preparing for and responding to the events at the U.S. Capitol.”

And according to the Times, the OIG is also investigating whether the Trump administration improperly pressured a federal prosecutor in Atlanta to pursue the then-president’s unproven claims of widespread election fraud.

Byung Pak, who was the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, abruptly resigned from his post on Jan. 4, and Trump replaced him with the top federal prosecutor in a neighboring district instead of allowing Pak’s deputy to take over.

Trump’s lawyers and allies pushed his theories in courtrooms across the country in the weeks following Election Day with no success as judges universally spurned his legal efforts to alter the outcome.