Legal expert walks through how DOJ raid on Jeff Clark could lead to Trump indictment
Ahead of the fifth public hearing for the House Select Committee investigating the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, Donald Trump's former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark was raided by federal agents.
Clark whined to the Fox network, "12 agents and two Fairfax County police officers went into my house, searched it for three and a half hours." The agents "took all of the electronics from my house."
Clark penned a document that he tried to get officials at the Justice Department to sign on to that declared they were investigating the Georgia election "irregularities." There were no Georgia irregularities. When asked questions by the House Committee about the letter, Clark refused to answer, pleading the Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times.
Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Constitutional and criminal defense attorney Page Pate explained that Clark is in big trouble.
"Well, we've heard a lot of discussion about the potential legal exposure and not just for the fake elector but for the people that were involved in getting these electors selected and chosen and eventually sending this slate up to the vice president, up to the national archives," said Pate. "We're looking at potential false statement charges, potential obstruction charges, and potential seditious conspiracy charges. A lot of it will depend on the evidence that is being developed right now, subpoenas have gone out, and search warrants have been issued so once the department gathers all of that. They're sorting through it and see if there is sufficient evidence to prove one of those charges."
He went on to explain that he thinks it is possible that the former president could face charges.
"I do think it is possible, and here is why: I think there was so much legal news this week that I think a lot of people may have overlooked what is probably the single most significant thing that has happened so far in the Jan. 6 committee hearings," he noted. "And that was something that was not in the committee itself, but the search warrant that was executed at the residence of Jeffrey Clark. He is a former top-level justice department official!"
He explained that to get a search warrant a federal judge must find that there is probable cause for it. The attorney general can't simply go rogue, as Trump learned after the 2020 election. So, in the case of Clark, a judge must believe that a crime has been committed based on the evidence shown to the court.
"This is not like a subpoena," Pate continued. "A subpoena is when we're investigating to see if there is a crime that has been committed. When a search warrant is issued, there is probable cause, there has been a crime. We're just trying to get the evidence to prove who do it. So, I think the fact that they are now focusing on Jeffrey Clark and people very close to the president during these pivotal days, right around Jan. 6, suggests that this investigation is far from over."
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