Sarah Burris is a long-time veteran of political campaigns, having worked as a fundraiser and media director across the United States. She transitioned into reporting while working for Rock the Vote, Future Majority and Wiretap Magazine, covering the Millennial Generation's perspective during the presidential elections. As a political writer, Burris has had bylines at CNN, Salon.com, BNR, and AlterNet and serves as a senior digital editor for RawStory.com.
The fifth of the public hearings for the House Select Committee investigating the attempt to overthrow the election focused on the extent to which the former president attempted to use the Justice Department to change the 2020 election.
The hearing came on the heels of federal agents raiding the home of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who was alleged to have penned a letter that would have declared the election questionable.
Witnesses Jeffrey Rosen, Steven Engel and Richard Donoghue, who were all senior DOJ officials in the Trump administration, described to the committee how they met with Donald Trump in the White House to discuss what the former president said was election fraud.
Legal experts watched in awe of the revelations, claiming that former Acting Asst. Attorney General Jeff Clark is in big trouble for his role in the attempt to overthrow the election. On multiple occasions, the former Justice Department officials said Clark and Trump led an effort to subvert the 2020 election after the fact.
When asked about it under oath, Clark pleaded his Fifth Amendment rights.
"Jan. 6 committee outlines how GOP congressman Scott Perry pushed to restructure Justice Department," noted former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara.
"All lawyers involved in the plot to stop the transfer of power as part of the 1/6 conspiracy must be disbarred," added former Attorney General Eric Holder.
"This is the smoking gun," Holder added, after noting that Trump reportedly said "just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen." Holder said the statement "demonstrates both Trump’s substantive involvement and corrupt intent, requisite state of mind."
"We knew the outlines of the story, but the details are, again, stunning -- a brazen & almost certainly criminal attempt to undo the election. And we heard many more new names, eg Ken Klukowski and Victor Blackwell-- all of whom are co-conspirators and potential cooperators," remarked former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman.
"One of the most damning pieces of evidence in this investigation," said George Conway.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance simply stated: "Jeff Clark is in deep, deep trouble."