The House select committee voted late Wednesday to recommend criminal charges against a former top Justice Department official who refused to cooperate with the panel's investigation.
Jeffrey Clark, the lawyer for the witness, told the committee that his client would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, which protect a witness from self-incrimination. The committee will convene another deposition for Clark this weekend to give him the chance to make his case.
The first step of the contempt process will be considered tonight.
The contempt process would not be finalized until Clark complies with the subpoena, according to Rep. Liz Cheney.
Clark was acting assistant attorney general for the civil division until his departure earlier this year, after joining the Justice Department's environmental protection division. He was a crucial witness for the select committee investigating the insurrection because he was a key player in Donald Trump's efforts to subvert the 2020 election results.
The select committee voted to recommend criminal charges against Clark in connection with the January 6 investigation. Last month, it voted to make a contempt referral for Trump's former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, who refused to cooperate with the inquiry while citing Trump's executive privilege assertion.
The House voted to advance the referral, and the Justice Department indicted Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress last month. He denied the charges. Prosecutors accused Bannon of trying to get media attention off of his case and asked a judge to restrict what evidence he could release to the public.
Clark was subpoenaed by the January 6 select committee. He appeared before the committee early last month but gave a letter from his attorney, Harry MacDonald, saying he would not answer any substantive questions because of attorney-client privilege and Trump's executive privilege claims.
MacDonald's letter said that Clark worked from home on January 6 to avoid street closings to get to his office at Main Justice.
Mr. Clark did not have the ability to deploy any Department of Justice personnel or resources to the Capitol.
Lawmakers on the bipartisan select committee investigating the insurrection have made clear that they expect the Justice Department to enforce subpoenas for records and testimony. Legal experts said that the decision in Clark's case was a slam-dunk for prosecutors, but as Insider's C. Ryan Barber reported, Attorney General Garland could be faced with a much more difficult decision.
Clark has a stronger argument as it relates to Trump's executive-privilege claims because both men were in the federal government at the time. Clark's conversations with Trump raise questions about attorney-client privilege.
The former president is not likely to back off of his opposition to the investigation. He asserted executive privilege over a bunch of documents the committee requested from the White House, but the Biden administration declined to do the same and authorized the National Archives to turn the materials over to Congress.
On Tuesday, Trump's lawyers argued before a three-judge appeals court panel that the former president has the right to dictate which documents Congress gets.
The panel is unlikely to buy that argument.
"We have one president at a time under our constitution," JudgePatricia Millett said during oral arguments. The Supreme Court has told us that the incumbent president is best positioned to make a decision about the interests of the executive branch.
