former justice department official named jeffrey clark. we are going to have more on that right in just a moment. the committee's interest about clark has to do with the former presidents effort to install clark as acting attorney general so that clark could use the levers of the justice department to subvert joe biden's victory in the 2020 election. take a listen to this incredible moment recalled today of a white house meeting just days before january 6 involving jeffrey clark, today's witnesses, the white house counsel, and then president trump. clark had just explained his plan, and here's how white house counsel eric hirschman responded. a warning, now, some of the language is a little bit salty. >> i made the point to jeff clark is not even confident to serve as the attorney general. he's never been a criminal attorney. he's never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. he's never been a trial jury. and he kind of retorted by saying, well, i've done a lot of very comp located appeals and civil litigation, environmental litiga

when i look at jeffrey clark, i do not see gordon lady. but we will patiently await the outcome of these investigations. barry berke, neil catio, thank you very much for leaving us off again tonight. donald trump has repeatedly tried -- did repeatedly try, to steal georgia's electoral votes from joe biden. >> donald trump offered mr. clark the job of acting attorney general, replacing mr. rosen, with the understanding that clark would send this letter to georgia and other states. and take other actions the president requested. >> stacey abrams, candidate for governor of georgia, joins us next. gia, joins u next cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? a monster was attacking but the team remained calm. because with miro, they could problem solve together, and find the answer that was right under their nose. or... his nose. mamá, growing up... you were so good to me. you worked hard to save for my future. so now... i want to thank you. i star

clark, today's witnesses, the white house council pat sip lini, and jeffrey clark. here's how white house counsel eric hershmann responded. some of the language is a little bit salty. >> i made the point that jeff clark is not even competent to serve as the attorney general. he's never been a criminal attorney. he's never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. he's never been in front of a jury, much less a trial jury, and he kind of retorted by saying, well, i've done a lot of very complicated appeals and civil litigation, environmental litigation and things like that. and i said, that's right. you're an environmental lawyer. how about you go back to your office, and we'll call you when there's an oil spill? and pat cipollone weighed in at one point, i remember, saying, you know, that letter that this guy wants to send, that letter is a murder/suicide pact. it's going to damage everyone who touches it. >> today's hearing also provided evidence that directly linked the former president to the effort to overturn the election. former acting deputy attorney ge

so, that was what convinced him not to install jeffrey clark. what's interesting though is after that meeting, which is two and a half hours. they finally talked donald trump down from this crazy scheme of installing jeffrey clark. he then calls donahue 30 minutes later and comes up with this other crazy scheme of, oh, there's some i.c.e. agent with shredded ballots i think in georgia. i think donahue said, i'm sure he's exasperated at the president's schemes. you should call dhs. >> it's not my problem. >> exactly. it's somebody else's problem. so, he is still spinning and in this kind of manic race to find this evidence for this crazy theory he has. and this, of course, leads up to january 6. >> so, can we talk for a second. you said he's so obsessed with how things look. to go back to our documentary filmmaker who don just talked to -- i don't know if you saw the clip he put out where he said the trumps did not have editorial control. but it was a clip of donald trump arranging the way that the interview looked. and i think any of us -- anyon

i think the whole plot, the jeffrey clark plot failed, because of jeffrey clark himself, because of who donald trump saw in that room, on january 3rd, when the real people from the justice department showed up, and jeffrey clark had to take his position in relation to them, and they sat there, personally insulting jeffrey clark to his face. you know, the big tough guy at the desk in the oval office is watching this, and for him, what he is seeing and character terms is, this whip is being banged around this room by these other guys, and by the way, these guys are telling you, after we all quit, after 150 of us walked out the door, on day one, everyone else in the building is going to treat this guy the weight we are treating this guy in this room, and trump is looking at about guy, saying, can he be my guy, to carry out the rest of this plot and he sat there and decided, based on that goofy tv show version of life of his, he is looking at the sky and going this guy can't do it. this guy can't be my apprentice attorney general. >> the thing that is so striking is this idea of donahue, in

jeffrey clark's home was raided today. they may have had other things that happened before this moment in time, but what about jeffrey clark today did you learn from the hearings, was there other corroborating evidence through his phone et cetera, that said this person was named? i also want to know, if i am doj, how did scott perry know that jeffrey clark was the person to speak to about these issues? who told you what? who leaned on you, where? why does jeffrey clark have an audience with the president of the united states? >> why does perry know that clark is susceptible to this idea? >> exactly. doj, remember, when you were a prosecutor in the doj you are vetted to an extent even your credit cards. >> if merrick garland did pursue charges, without serve the former president's interest? >> i think so. i think the president would go out and say look, i am being persecuted for my beliefs here. and it's a charge. if you're not going to convict the president, that will make it 1000 times stronger. i've heard mentioned on th

at least as to jeffrey clark. because you have to amass sufficient evidence to show probable cause, and you only go overt, as a search warrant is, as you've exhausted all of the covert lines of investigation. >> fascinating. "new york times" justice department reporter katie benner, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan and msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade, invaluable for helping us understand these developments tonight. thank you so much >>> in a moment, we will speak with congressman jamie raskin, our special coverage of the january 6th hearing continues after this. >>> let's pause for a second. it's new years eve. president trump is talking about seizing voting machines and making the same demands that have already been shot down by former attorney general barr, on at least three occasions, and by mr. rosen and mr. donoghue on multiple other occasions. claim after claim knocked down. but the president didn't care. b. what if i sleep hot? ...or cold? no problem. the sleep number 360 smart

clark and jeffrey rosen. who was going to be the attorney general at the end of that day. it wasn't until several of the officials including the people you're going to hear from today, richard donahue, the deputy attorney general at the time. steve engle who was the head of the office of legal counsel, they said to the former president, look, you're going to have mass resignation. everyone is going to resign. no one is going to stay in office and work under jeffrey clark if you do this. in the end, trump didn't do this. but clark was definitely ready to do this. he proprosed, written letters, proposed letters that were going to be sent to georgia and other states saying the justice department was investigating fraud. obviously they were looking into some of these claims but had found nothing to substantiate it. >> so the raid by authorities is -- do we know what they found? >> we don't know yet what they found. but this is something that happened yesterday. and at this point, we know that the -- these were fe

the man of the pjs out in the street is named jeffrey clark. we knew getting into today's hearing this that much of the witness estimate he would focus on mr. clark. because he was at the center of this part of the plot. he was the man trump tried to put in charge of the justice department, in his final days in office, specifically because mr. clark allegedly promised he would use the justice department to overturn the election results and keep trump in power. so, we knew that the january 6th investigation had been focused, in part, on jeff clark. we knew to expect that today we would learn a lot about what the investigation found about mr. clark and what party allegedly played in trump's parts efforts to overthrow the government. but we did not know before today, though, is that in addition to the january 6th investigation in congress, being interested in him, apparently federal criminal investigators have been focused on him too. and it shall indications are that, in, fact the january six investigators in congress were just as surprised as th

clark's -- search of jeffrey clark's home. were there any connections between doj and anyone on the committee about the schedule? >> i don't know anything about that. i am on the committee -- that is only investigating the attempted overthrow of the 2020 election, not the committee that's investigating us. but i know of no foul play. so, i am not aware -- >> i just -- there has been a lot of reporting about a lack of shared evidence between the committee and doj. i just wondered if there was any aboveboard coordination or sharing of evidence, or any requests from them that you all abided by, to move the hearing, to give them time to carry out their search. >> absolutely none that i am aware of. we have really been buffeted by the constant infusion of the new evidence and people come forward. >> i can tell you, at least for the part that i am working on, with congresswoman murphy, there is a lot of new evidence that i am checking out this weekend. >> congressman, i will echo the things that my colleagues that we are sharing tim

jeffrey clark and federal indicators raided the home of jeffrey clark, part of the doj's investigation efforts to overturn the 2020 election. does that say anything about where the doj is headed? >> is a big step. no question. there's a lot we don't know but there are some things we do know. in order to get a search warrant as a prosecutor, you have to swear out and affidavit dictating you have probable cause to believe a client crime was committed but you have to take that to a judge and judges scrutinize these. i've sat in judges waiting rooms while they go through it to decide whether they agree. we note doj believes that clark has probable cause, not beyond a reasonable doubt. we know a judge agreed with it. we don't know exactly what they took. knowing this case i would assume phones, computers, laptops, they would dump all that info, and it is a bad omen for jeffrey clark. not everyone who gets searched gets charged. rudy giuliani has not been charged yet but it is a big step for doj. >> we are hearing, this piece over here and this piece over there. >> so much. jeffrey clark is

i don't think we could have had a jeffrey clark. we have people who are responsible and respectful, and they could say, look, you put him in place, and it will be a laughing stock. it's you put him in place and it will be a laughingstock. right? it's a suicide pact, and you know, a suicide pact because you will lose. nobody will think that jeffrey clark is a significant person. >> since we are all lawyers here, almost all of us, to answer the point raised, you are mentioning these great people, but there is no great logic to who trump picked, when. we were reminded that they had to tell him who he could hire and fire, because even as he was plotting, he asked if he could fire them for insubordination and they said, mr. president only you have that authority. so to your rebuttal, what if mr. trump had just been the ag. he could have been picked as the ag. >> the reason he wasn't was because there is an order for picking attorney general, who gets said. >> they put in billed bar. >> billed bar is different. as he said, he did some mes

as you know, jeffrey clark was at the center of this effort to overturn the election. he was willing to send letter to georgia, to the state of georgia, saying that the justice department had concerns or had, it had indications that there was fraud, which, of course, he knew was not true. he knew that the department had investigated georgia and in other places, and found nothing to support the idea that there was widespread fraud that would have made a difference in the election. and yet, he was willing to do that. he wanted to put himself in place of jeffrey rosen so that he could carry out the president's bidding. so now, we wait to see what next steps happen in this investigation. obviously, there's a number of witnesses who are going to be very important to exactly what jeffrey clark was doing and they're, you saw a couple of them right there in this hearing today who were going to be able to provide context of what he was up to. >> yeah, absolutely. and i mean, just to state the obvious, you don't raid someone's home with no preparation, nothing lines up. it doesn

. >> jeffrey clark -- this was yesterday, federal investigators raided the home of jeffrey clark. it was part of the gop efforts to look into the attempt to overturn the election. >> in order to get a search warrant, you have to have probable cause that you believe a crime is committed and you have to take that to a judge. judges scrutinize those things and they go through and decide whether they agree. we know d.o.j. believes there's probable cause and a judge agreed with it. we don't know exactly what they took. knowing this case i would say phones, computers, laptops and it's a bad omen for jeffrey clark. rudy giuliani hasn't been charged yet but it a big step for d.o.j. >> we're hearing this is happening here and you have this piece over there and -- >> so much. >> jeffrey clark is so fascinating. i'm already writing the movie because he's such a character. it's not like he came up as this trumpy figure inside d.c. circles. a colleague said the story kind of shocked me because this is not the jeff i knew. i knew jeff as a guy who really cared about the rule of law and just a r

clark, meaning jeffrey clark at doj, be given election related responsibilities? >> you mean, beyond the president? >> correct. beyond the president, i do recall saying to people that somebody should be put in charge of the justice department who isn't frightened of what's going to be done to their reputation. umm, because justice was filled with people like that. >> should put somebody that's not frightened of what's going to be done to their reputation. mr. donahue, when you told the president that you wouldn't pursue baseless claims of fraud, is it because you were worried about your reputation? >> no, not at all. >> mr. clark's name was also mentioned in the white house in late december and early january, as described by a top aide to mark meadows, cassidy hutchison. >> mr. rosen, after a call with president trump on december 24th, you spoke with mr. clark on december 26th about his contact with the president. can you tell us about that conversation? >> yes. umm, because i had been quizzical about why his name had come up, i called him and i tried to explore i

jeffrey rosen and replace him with clark. you know, scott perry is -- was one of the people who was pushing italy-gate. this farfetched conspiracy theory that the italian defense contractor was conspiring with the cia toute satellites to flip votes from trump to joe biden. he pushed that in multiple emails to department of justice officials. he pushed it to mark meadows asking, you know, why they couldn't just work with the italians to figure this out and ultimately it got elevated to the highest levels of government. during a time when there was a lot of other things as sam stein just noted, including a pandemic that has killed million americans going on. but ultimately as the committee drilled down on yesterday, because of jeffrey rosen, rich donoghue and steven engle, three people who stood up against jeffrey clark and the former president and threatened to cause a mass resignation so jeffrey clark would be leading a graveyard. the former president was not able to go through with a lot of what he was trying to. >> jackie,

perry and mark meadows where perry is talking with meadows about elevating jeffrey clark. it just points torques one, how brazen they feel about this and two, how convinced they are that there is just not going to be any accountability for their actions, that they are willing to just come out and say that thing that they presented evidence for in writing, no, we didn't do that. >> do you think there will be accountability, joe? >> i hope so. and the other thing is they've learned -- these republicans have learned from trump just lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. don't stop lying. that's what perry was doing yesterday. >> and the only reason that some of this is coming out to begin with is because there are certain white house officials who are willing to go under oath. i mean, these are people who didn't want to not cooperate and be referred to criminal contempt and potentially expose themselves. so you see a difference between people's public statements in which they don't necessarily tell the truth and the difference in people who are under oath and understand the gravity of the

jeffrey clark is almost appointed. there are two hours of heated discussion. finally president trump gives him because he does not think he can get it done. when you think about where this hearing happened, the day before was the 67 minute call wh the georgia official. on january 3, the proud boys had a well-developed plan to attack the capital. the next day, january 4, trump berates his vice president to try to get him to acquiesce and not accept the electoral college wrote. and then we know what happened on january 6. judy: and michael, as someone that has worked at the justice department in two administration's. this was a president told repeatedly that what he was looking at -- that there was no basis for any fraud but he continued to push his own justice officials to do this. is there anything like that that you have heard of in american history? reporter: no, this is unique to the president of the united states in this moment of time. when i listen to this evidence, can they prove knowledge and intent? the president of the united states acted with knowle

you can not put jeffrey clark in power. and if you do do that, that there will be mass resignations and that was really based on my understanding and conversations with sources, that that was the only reason why clark didn't end up being the acting ag and why the department of justice was not turned into the personal legal team of the trump campaign. so the fact clark is now having to deal with this with federal authorities at his home, this is going to be incredibly interesting to continue to watch and also it's going to be so pertinent as we think about what lawmakers might be asking these department of justice officials today as we learn more about the pressure campaign that president trump had on the doj. >> frank, we have you with us now i'm told. this raid happened a year and a half after everything was happening with clark within the doj. what might investigators be able to find given it's been so long? >> well, in this electronic age we live in, as you know, it's like what you do in las vegas does not stay in las ve

then there was the scheme to install this man, jeffrey clark, an environmental lawyer and election live promoter into the top job at justice. federal investigators raided clark's home wednesday. the day before he was to be the focus of the congressional hearing. clark described the raid overnight. >> at one point, you know, 12 agents and two fairfax county police officers went into my house, searched it for three and a half hours. they even brought along something, tucker, i have never seen before or heard of, an electronic sniffing dog and they took all of the electronics from my house. >> new fallout this morning from revelation that is six republican lawmakers sought preemptive pardons from former president trump before and after the attack on the capitol. that is according to emails and testimony revealed by the january 6th committee. >> was representative gaetz requesting a pardon? >> i believe so. a pardon that he was discussing, requesting, was as broad as you could describe. >> mr. biggs did, mr. jordan talked about congressional pardons but he never asked me for one. mr. gohmer

but i look at jeffrey clark, and i'm thinking, you know, jeffrey clark is what trump 2.0 will look like. you know, one of these immediate mediocrities that's willing to pursue these bizarre fascism. and what you saw yesterday was this play out of the president of the united states pushing these bizarre, insane conspiracy theories, these fantasies. but pushing every single lever to use and corrupt the department of justice. i mean, thank god that we had these individuals here. but keep in mind also, this was 17 days before the term was over. in trump 2.0, you will have more jeffrey clarks in that room, you will be able to find people, i think, people who will be willing to do what the president wants. and now, of course, the president has figured out, you know, what he can do and what he can get away with. but it was an extraordinary moment. and i was thinking about, as you opened the show, you actually did have, i think, a smoking gun with the president basically saying, i don't care what's true, you just say it and leave it to me. you had this happen the same day that jeffrey clark's h

the sarah, the select committee bringing into focus doj official jeffrey clark's role. significant role in the former president's scheme. >> yes, absolutely. rolling out how former president trump wanted to just set aside jeff rosen and steal jeffrey clark as the acting attorney general. look, the witnesses are in person and in their video testimony were not holding back on what they thought about jeffrey clark and his qualifications. listen to what richard donahue had had to say about clark. >> i made the point that jeff clark is not competent to serve as the attorney general. he's never been a criminal attorney. he's never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. he's never been a trial jury. he kind of retorted by saying, well, i've done a will the of very complicated appeals and civil litigation, environmental litigation and things like that. i said that's right. you're an environmental lawyer. how about you go back to your office and we'll call you when there's an oil spill. >> officials were alarmed when they heard about steps that jeffrey clark was willing

if the former president had managed to replace jeffrey rosen with jeff row jeffrey clark , if they just went along with the plan. it would of given them the ability dispense in their states. these are the states that the donald trump fairly lost. and, you know, again, we are talking about how close things were in those key days. end of december, 2020, beginning of january 2021. you know, to me, you know, having covered these people being in that building during that period it astonishes me reliving all of that today, don, to hear how close we came to losing democracy in this country. i think a lot of americans do not realize this. a lot of people moved on and it is like oh, forget about it, not that big of a deal or, you know, let's let it go. i think it is important for us to relive this simply because we need to learn from it and to make sure it does not happen again, don. >> it is important to get that information out there. thank you, evan, appreciate that. >>> i am going to bring in congress adam schiff, a california democrat who is a member of the january 6th committee. i want to

rosen with jeffrey clark. if they had just gone along with this plan and this letter had been sent to the state of georgia essentially saying that the justice department believed that there was fraud and it would have given the opening to legislatures around the country to dispense with the election results in their states. these are the states that donald trump fairly lost. and, again, we're talking about how close things were in those key days, end of december 2020, beginning of january 2021. to me, having covered these people being in that building during that period, it just astonishes me just reliving all of that today, don, to hear how close we came to losing democracy in this country. i don't think -- a lot of americans don't realize this. a lot of them have moved on, they're like forget about it, it wasn't that big of a deal or let's just let it go. i think it's important for us to relive this simply because we need to learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again. >> it imp's important to get th

jeffrey clark said why don't we just say we found it? he drafted this letter, he said, quote, at this time we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the state of georgia. he wanted doj to send that letter to georgia officials. that's just false. that's a lie. there is no such evidence and he wanted georgia to act on it. he said in the letter, you should call a special session of your assembly to consider your electors. what potential crimes? we could be looking at conspiracy to defraud the united states, doesn't have to be money, can be of a free and fair election, could be obstruction of doj, of an investigation, of congress, fairly counting the electoral votes, could be a false statement. it is a federal crime to submit a false statement through doj, to the irs, you name it. so those are the potential crimes in play. >> conspiracy here, because people could say he didn't send the letter, so there was no crime committed, but -- >> it is still a crime if you a

laura: jeffrey clark is a really fascinating figure here who was not present at the committee hearing at all today. and he is a former -- well, he's an environmental lawyer. and he then became the head of the civil division within the justice department around 2020. and he was key in trying to convince trump to install him as the head of the justice department, because he told trump that he would essentially be a yes-man and was willing to do all the things that trump was asking the justice department to do, and to replace rosen with himself. now, we heard about the big meeting that happened on january 3 in the oval office witformer president trump with his actg attorney general, rosen, the deputies, as well as jeffrey clark. and, in that meeting, trump asked, what would happen if he replaced rosen with clark? and here's what donoghue, the deputy a.g., at the time said would happen. richard donoghue: he said: "so, suppose i do this. suppose i replace him, jeff rosen, with him, jeff clark. what would you do?" and i said: "mr. president, i'm going to resign immediately. i'm not working

the house committee will seek to make this man jeffrey clark something of a household name. he is the environmental lawyer who former president trump wanted to take over the justice department to help in his scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. if trump had gotten his way, clark would have replaced then acting attorney general jeffrey rosen who resisted trump's pressure campaign. rosen is one of three key witnesses scheduled to testify at today's hearing along with his deputy richard donaghue and also expected to testify, assistance a.g. for the office of legal council, steve engle. all were present during a meeting days before the january 6 attack. they're expected to testify trump's efforts to replace rosen and to make clark the acting attorney general. and their threats to quit if he did that. and we'll learn today's hearing will be last to take place this month. the january 6 committee postponing the next two hearings that were set for next week. those now will take place later in july. chairman bennie thompson said the panel has received additional infor

this little-known environmental attorney named jeffrey clark. in fact, the proposition of him taking over, replacing jeff rossen as acting attorney general became so real that apparently according to what the committee showed today, um, on january 3rd he was being referenced as the acting-attorney general in the phone calls between clark and the white house on that day. here is what the former-doj officials had to say about clark, and his qualifications or lack thereof for that role. >> i made the point that jeff clark is not even competent to serve as the attorney general. and he kind of retorted by saying, well, i've done a lot of very complicated appeals and civil litigation, environmental litigation, and things like that and i said that's right. u an environmental lawyer. how about you go back to your office and we will call you when there is an oil spill? and pat cipollone weighed in at one point, i remember, saying you know that letter that this guy wants to send. that letter is a murder-suicide pact. it is going to damage everyone who tou

jeffrey clark just getting annihilated. watch this. >> jeff clark was proposing that jeff rosen be replaced by jeff clark. and i thought the proposal was asinine. >> i said, that's right, you are the environmental lawyer, how about you go back to your office and we will call you when there is an oil spill. >> i thought jeff's proposal -- clarks for puzzle -- was nuts. this is a guy, at certain points -- the best i could tell was, the only thing you know about environmental and election challenges is they both start with e. and basically -- i'm not even sure that you know that. >> frank, if you thought today was horrible for jeffrey clark you weren't paying attention to what happened yesterday, when his home got searched. tell us what's could they have been looking for, what does this mean for him? >> so, i think it's very important to take the careful approach that nbc news is taking, which is, number one, we're using -- the phrase federal agents with regard to what happened at clarks house yesterday. we are not really cert

su asistente tambiÉn hablÓ de una reuniÓn donde trump trato de reemplazar a rosen con jeffrey clark. las alegaciones que estaba promoviendo presidentes simplemente no tenÍan mÉrito, dijo richard. se informÓ que agentes federales allanaron hoy la casa de jeffrey clark en virginia, en la audiencia se conociÓ que un congresista republicano de pensilvania pidiÓ a la casa blanca que jeffrey clark fuera designado como fiscal general y que siete congresista republicano buscaron perdÓn por la casa blanca despuÉs del capitolio. hubo diversas entrevistas dirigidas los hijos de trÓn y el exvicepresidente pence, entre otros. las revelaciones y acciÓn judicial ocurre en medio de un drÁstico aumento a las amenazas que reciben los congresistas que integranla comisiÓn que investiga el ataque al 6 de enero. " estamos dando paso a la luz y la verdad ante las mentiras que han impregnado la visiÓn de muchas personas, y eso no los tiene felices", dijo el congresista kissinger. jorge: en un aniversario donde el colapso de los apartamentos de surfside, los sobrevivientes de la tragedia aÚn suf

rosen and replacing him with jeffrey clark. and this was a showdown. rosen and the doj official said if you do that we will have mass resignations, ultimately trump backed down, did he not install clark. during that meeting i should note there was a dispute and donohue an experienced prosecutor lashed out at jeffrey clark he said this guy has never tried a case s not a real prosecutor. the quote from donohue to clark was you are an environmental lawyer, how about you go back to your office and we will call you when there is an oil spill. that is what the kids call a sick burn. i just want to say this, this is the do j.lo goe, i was lucky enough to work there and we were always trained if you have the privilege of putting this on your work you better protect it because it's about independence, about integrity, about the rule of law. we will see today that that's exactly what those justice department officials did. >> i will tell you what's interesting here is you have at least two people who have had conversations with the forme

that sets the scene for this predawn search at the home of jeffrey clark. he complains that he was made to stand outside in his pajamas, while agents conducted an hours long search, he says that they took electronics from his home. here's him on fox news last night describing what he went through during this. >> at one point, you know, 12 agents and two fairfax county police officers went into my house, searched it for three and a half hours, they even brought along something, tucker, i've never seen before, or heard of, an electronic-sniffing dog, and they took all of the electronics from my house. >> jim and poppy, this is all part of the investigation that the justice department has going into the efforts to overturn the election. this search that happened at jeffrey clark's house happened during the time that there were searches -- sorry, subpoenas being served to people involved in the fake electors scheme, all over the country. there are seven states where the trump campaign tried to essentially organize these fake electors. and pretty much every one

we just learned about the jeffrey clark home raid. what does that tell us about the doj investigation? >> it tells me that mr. clark is almost certainly the target of that federal investigation if he was one of my clients, i would tell him that he needs to prepare to be charged. it's that serious, because a federal judge found there was good reason that a crime was committed and the evidence was in his home. >> these requests for pardons, from lawmakers, gaetz, brooks, gohmert, biggs and perry legal repercussions there? >> no, but it's significant and the speech and debate clause widely protects them for stuff related to their legislative duties, which suggests to me that they thought they were doing something that was potentially criminal >> renato, thank you very much on a historic day on capitol hill >>> the supreme court issuing a major ruling on guns and where you can have them. the gun rights group celebrating. the officials saying this does not mean it's over or all open for open carry pete williams joins us to break down the d

jeffrey clark is an environmental lawyer and trump ally. after the 2020 election, he met with trump, despite a rule banning contact between doj officials and the white house except through proper channels. one of today's witnesses, richard donahue, testified that he called clark's credentials into question during a tense oval office showdown and said you're an environmental lawyer. how about you go back to your office and we'll call you when there's an oil spill. nbc news justice reporter ryan riley joins us with paul butler, former federal prosecutor and law professor at georgetown law school. ryan, let's just say donahue was unhappy about the idea of jeffrey clark taking over. what else can you tell us about these tense conversations and what more we might learn today? >> yeah. that was a legendary putdown and one that he was pretty proud of. jeffrey clark grew up in northeast philadelphia, went to harvard. then he went to -- he went to law school. he was an accomplished lawyer but purely a civil lawyer. he did not have any experience in

it doesn't appear that jeffrey clark actually ruled it himself. he seems to have received a draft of it from another recently arrived republican lawyer after the justice department, who is also not an election expert. senator whitehouse told the washington post, yesterday, it certainly could be a symptom of a much larger and more coherent plan that has currently been disclosed. senator whitehouse estate of ruled island is now the second state after new york to pass gun reform legislation since the mass murder at robb elementary school in uvalde texas. the new legislation races the new legal age to purchase any firearms in rhode island from 18 to 21. it bans the open term shotguns in public and bans ammunition magazines containing more than ten rounds of ammunition. members of the rhode island general assembly debated the legislation late into the, night last night with protesters for and against the legislation in the gallery watching. governor daniel keep will sign the new laws. today, in washington, senator whitehouse participated in a senate ju

we've been able to confirm the just yesterday morning, there was a raid on the home of jeffrey clark, he was the justice department official, who advocated this legal path to tell the states that they had found irregularities with the boat and they should have a special session to put forward new or alternate lectures to come to washington for the electoral college certification. and we learned to our reporting that they seized electronic devices from jeffrey clark's home, and that's happening at the same time that we understand subpoenas have been served on these electors, who were willing to serve for then president trump. that tells us the criminal justice department investigation has expanded and expanded to those individuals who it appears were willing to support this alternative view of proceeding with these electors on january 6th. >> part of what's really interesting and fascinating about these hearings has been the witness testimony. who does the committee want to hear from next? >> well, the senior republican on the committee, liz cheney has said publicly that she wants to h

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clark -- did look, for jeffrey clark, it makes sense. what was he, an environmental lawyer? to possibly become the attorney general of the united states? eastman, it really doesn't make sense. you talked about a guy who actually orchestrated the way within which donald could hold on to power in the united states against the will of the people. why do people do it? why i did? it again, there is something that must be lacking within ourselves, whether it is at the moment or from birth. i don't know the answer. but we definitely have something lacking it we were looking to donald, whether it is the celebrity appeal, whether it is the power that went along, whether it was the relevance, the importance, it's a multitude of things and i wish i could put my finger on it. it keeps me up at night all the time. >> it might take some therapy to figure out, as all of us are in therapy over one thing or another. this might be yours, michael cohen. as always, michael cohen, we thank you for joining us on thin -- and providing insight. >> he has, then

. >>> we are learning new details about former justice department official jeffrey clark's effort to help donald trump overturn the election. "the new york times" was first to report on a tense meeting inside the oval office in which trump considered replacing then acting attorney general jeffrey rosen with clark after rosen had refused to go along with the president's election schemes. the plan never materialized, but only after justice department officials threatened to resign if rosen was dismissed. now "the washington post" is piecing together more parts of this puzzle. rosen reportedly told the senate judiciary committee that he and clark clashed after rosen refused to sign on to a letter to georgia lawmakers urging them to send congress an alternate slate of electors who would support trump. the following day, just three days before the january 6th attack on the capitol, rosen told the committee that clark said the president offered him rosen's job and that he would take it. that rosen would be replaced in days and the justice department could then, quote, chart a different pat

in that case, this is in the home of one trump lawyer, jeffrey clark and on the cell phone of another, john eastman. we've got this torrent of new federal grand jury subpoenas of people involved in one part of the plot, the fake electors things, and we've got this investigation that is happening in congress. rushing now, not just to speak with a new witness, not to just get a deposition from someone, but rushing for some reason to get public televised testimony from that person tomorrow. someone that, for whom they're keeping their identity a secret. apparently, right up until the start of the hearing. and i say they're keeping it a secret and i mean. it i mean there's no such thing as a secret in washington. most of the time. but with this one, there really aren't leaks about it at all. there is a lot of speculation and i think a lot of trolling going on as to who it might be but there aren't leaks from the committee. nobody really knows. there is no informed speculation as to who the witness is going to be. so what's going on here? like i said, we will have expert help on that in ju

jeffrey rosen after being told by clark that he was being replaced. here's testimony on how that meeting came about. >> did he tell you the president had offered him the job of acting attorney general? >> that was a day later. on the second, he said that the president had asked him to let him know if he would be willing to take it. subsequently, he told me that, on sunday the 3rd, he told me that the time line had moved up, and that the president had offered him a job and he was accepting it. >> what was your reaction to that? >> well, you know, on the one hand i wasn't going to accept being fired by my subordinate, so i wanted to talk to the president directly. >> my recollection, that when the president turned to me to say steve, you wouldn't leave, you would, i said mr. president, i've been with you through four attorneys general, including two acting attorneys general, but i couldn't be part of this. and then the other thing that i said was that, you know, look, all anyone is going to sort of think about when they see this, no one is going to read

justice department, you know, dawn raid on jeffrey clark's home. that's the assistant attorney general who tried to maneuver to become the acting attorney general, until trump what you want to hear about election fraud, bring bogus lawsuits and the like. but also, today, john eastman, trump's lawyer, stone was seized. it turned out, it was ceased last week. all of this, to me, ayman, in addition, there is a real kind of a step up and both sides of the investigation, congress and the justice department. and they may not be working directly together, but they're obviously sharing some information. there are some disputes about how much information should be shared. but these two different axes, pursuing an investigation, against, if not donald trump, personally, that hasn't been confirmed yet. certainly, donald trump's, you know, coconspirators of his jeffrey clark, john eastman, and the like. so, the committee is starting to circle. the justice department is starting to circle. >> katie, what more do we know about the eastman phone seizure, if anyth

trump also tried to install a loyalist to leave the department of justice, a man name jeffrey clark, who backed his false claims of fraud. former attorney general, jeffrey rosen, the man tried -- along with his former deputy, richard donahue, and another official, steven angle. we heard from donahue at yesterday's hearing. in a taped deposition, he told the story of a january 6th 2021 oval office meeting, where -- january 3rd, excuse me, oval office meeting, where he threatened to resign if trump made jeffrey clark attorney general. >> the president said, suppose i do this, suppose i replace him with jeff rosen, with jeff clark, what do you do? i said sir, i would resign immediately. there is no way i am serving one minute under this guy. jeff clark. >> donahue also told the committee the doj never found any credible evidence of fraud that could change the outcome of the election. we have also learned the panelists postponing hearings that were originally planned for next week into later july. >> we've taken in some additional information. that information is going to require additio

finally get done. >> jeffrey clark, a little known environmental lawyer at the doj who had a penchant for conspiracy theories and was willing to do the president's bidding. he started his own investigations and had an oval office meeting with the president and that was strictly forbidden under doj policies. >> he began calling witnesses and apparently conducting investigations of his own, and he got a briefing from reported intelligence interference. >> rosen and donoghue testified that jeffrey clark wanted to send this letter to georgia state election officials, that falsely claimed the justice department, quote, identified significant concerns that may have impacted georgia's election results and those from other states, too. >> i had to read both the email and the attached letter twice to make sure i understood what he was proposing because it was so extreme to me, i had a hard time getting my head around it initially, and i sat down to draft a response because i thought it was important to give a prompt response rejecting this out of hand, for the department to insert itself into

and after that, we learned that a justice department official, a trump doj lawyer, named jeffrey clark, who was allegedly trying to use the power of the justice department to help trump pull off this scheme, we learned thursday morning last week, that he too had had a visit from federal agents the previous day. except in his case, he didn't get a subpoena the way all the other victims people dead. jeff clark actually had his house searched in a predawn raid. with federal agents executing a search warrant at his home, and taking all his electronic devices. today, we've learned there was yet another one, and it happened, the same day, wednesday last week. what we learned today was that it was also trump lawyer, john eastman, who was an outside lawyer for trump. he's been portrayed by the january 6th investigation as sort of the architect of the scheme that trump was trying to pull off, both in terms of trying to get the states to flip, and pressuring the vice president, and the fake electors. apparently, that same day last week, wednesday, john eastman, also got a visit from federal agen