High drama as Jan. 6 hearing details Trump's effort to corrupt Justice Department

Former DOJ officials described how they resisted Trump's relentless pressure.

Thursday's hearing of the Jan. 6 committee focused on the pressure then-President Donald Trump and his allies put on the Justice Department to help overturn the 2020 election.


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House GOP leader dodges questions on Trump, integrity of 2020 election

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a news conference Thursday dodged questions about endorsing Trump in 2024 and whether there was any widespread election fraud in the 2020 election.

McCarthy also said he had no regrets about not allowing Republicans to serve on the Jan. 6 committee. Trump has said McCarthy made a "foolish" mistake by refusing to allow Republican members to join the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked several of his picks.

"I do not regret not appointing anybody at all," McCarthy told reporters.

There are two Republicans serving on the House panel: Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. The two outspoken Trump critics were appointed by Pelosi.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel


Federal agents search home of former Trump Justice Department official

Federal agents searched the Virginia home of former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Wednesday morning, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the activity told ABC News.

It was unclear which federal agencies conducted the search, just hours before the House Jan. 6 committee was set to hold a hearing on then-President Donald Trump's effort to corrupt the Justice Department in what it says was his plot to overturn the election, but one neighbor who witnessed the law enforcement activity said they saw officials entering the residence early Wednesday.

Clark, a former assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources, emerged as a key player in Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department in the wake of the 2020 election. He previously pleaded the Fifth Amendment in an appearance before the Jan. 6 committee and has declined to comment through an attorney when asked about specific details regarding his alleged coordination with Trump and others.

-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, Luke Barr and Mike Levine


Hearing to detail Trump pressure campaign on DOJ

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and what led up to it is set on Thursday to bring into focus Trump's relentless post-Election Day efforts to enlist the Justice Department in his failed bid to overturn his election loss.

The committee's fifth hearing this month will feature testimony from three former top officials in the department who say they resisted Trump and his allies' repeated entreaties, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue and former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel.

All three have previously confirmed that they joined a group of top White House lawyers in threatening a mass resignation if Trump didn't back away from plans to oust Rosen and replace him with another obscure official in the top echelons of the department who was sympathetic to the Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

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-ABC News' Alexander Mallin


Former White House attorney suggests Clark ready to commit felony

The committee played a video of former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann recalling what he said he told Jeffrey Clark, a lower-level DOJ official overseeing environmental law enforcement, who supported Trump's proposal to have him become acting attorney general to help overturn the election results.

"When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said '[expletive], congratulations. You just admitted your first step you would take as AG would be committing a felony," Herschmann said. "'You're clearly the right candidate for this job.'"

"I told Clark the only thing he knew was that environmental and election both start with "e," and I'm not even sure you know that," he added.

In audio testimony, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue also recalled telling Clark, "Go back to your office, we'll call you when there's an oil spill," and calling the draft letter he wanted to send swing states to appoint alternate slates "a murder-suicide pact."

Rosen and Donoghue were detailing a two-and-half Oval Office meeting where Trump repeatedly pressed but was eventually dissuaded from his plan to install Clark atop the Justice Department to pursue baseless allegations of voter fraud just days before Congress was set to convene to certify Biden's victory.