Former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark — former President Donald Trump’s pick to head up the Department of Justice in the final days of his administration — told Fox News “I don’t recognize the country anymore” Thursday night after his home was searched by federal authorities one day earlier.
“There was loud banging outside my door. I quickly figured out there were agents there. I asked for the courtesy to put some pants on and was told ‘no,’” Clark told “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “They swept the house. Twelve agents and two police, Fairfax County police officers searched it for more than three hours.”
Clark claimed that authorities brought in an “electronic sniffing dog” and all the electronics in his home were removed.
“I just think we’re living in an era that I don’t recognize and increasingly, Tucker, I don’t recognize the country anymore with these Stasi-like things happening,” Clark said, referring to the notorious secret police in Communist East Germany.
During the interview, Carlson called the raid “Soviet” and “Stalinist” and asked Clark if he considered the Department of Justice “a political instrument.”
“Yeah, I think this is highly politicized and it’s also part, Tucker, if you didn’t know it, of a nationwide effort yesterday,” Clark said. “There were multiple states where multiple people were roughly simultaneously raided for their electronic devices. And that obviously requires a high level of coordination.”
The raid took place one day before a public hearing by the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot that examined Clark’s role in Trump’s scheme to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Clark worked as the acting head of the DOJ’s Civil Division and head of its Environment and Natural Resources Division. However, as other top officials refused to back Trump’s claims of election fraud, the then-president swiftly sought to promote Clark.
Despite concerns from several DOJ officials — including former acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and former Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel — Trump went so far as to informally offer Clark the post of acting attorney general just days before the Capitol riot.
White House call logs obtained by the committee show the administration referring to Clark as “Acting Attorney General” on Jan. 3, 2021, despite Rosen officially holding the role.
That same day, Clark reportedly told Rosen that Trump had offered him the job and he intended to accept.
Rosen, Donoghue and Engel all later told the then-president that they would resign if Clark took over the DOJ — and mass departures would follow.
Clark was subpoenaed by the committee and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a pre-taped deposition.
