House Jan. 6 committee to vote Wednesday on whether to hold former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark in contempt for defying subpoena

WASHINGTON – The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection will vote Wednesday on whether to hold former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in contempt for defying the panel's subpoena and urge the department to prosecute him criminally.

If the committee approves the move, the proposal would go to the full House.

Jeffrey Clark, a former acting assistant attorney general during the final days of the Trump administration, submitted a letter to the committee through his attorney claiming that he would decline to testify Nov. 5, citing former President Donald Trump's assertion of executive privilege.

Clark is among a string of former administration officials and campaign advisers refusing to cooperate with the investigation. Trump is fighting a subpoena for his administration's documents in a federal appeals court. And the Justice Department filed criminal contempt charges against Trump political strategist Steve Bannon.

The committee subpoenaed Clark on Oct. 13, after he emerged as a central figure in the former president's efforts to deny President Joe Biden's election. Clark was subpoenaed to discuss his efforts to enlist the Justice Department in an effort to sow doubt in election results in Georgia.

More: Former acting AG Jeffrey Rosen provides 7 hours of testimony before Senate panel investigating election interference

Clark was featured prominently in a damning Senate Judiciary Committee report that found he attempted to countermand the top leaders at the department by drafting a letter to Georgia officials seeking to delay the state's certification of election results.

According to the Senate committee report, Clark sought to enlist then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to assist in "Trump’s election subversion scheme," telling Rosen that he would decline Trump's offer that he take Rosen's place if Rosen agreed to join.

More: Timeline: How the storming of the U.S. Capitol unfolded on Jan. 6

The Senate report also recounted a contentious Oval Office meeting Jan. 3, when Richard Donoghue, then-acting deputy attorney general, warned that a mass resignation of Justice Department officials and federal prosecutors would follow if Trump moved to replace Rosen with Clark to aid the president's election subversion scheme.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House panel to vote to hold Jeffrey Clark in contempt in Jan. 6 probe