Mass Resignation Threats, Blanket Pardons: Key Takeaways From 5th Day of January 6 Panel Hearings

The House January 6 Committee is continuing with its hearings despite harsh criticism from some Republicans, especially former President Donald Trump, whom the committee members have accused of inciting insurrection.

The fifth day of the House January 6 Committee hearings brought Justice Department employee, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, Jeffrey Clark, into the spotlight as a purported key accomplice to former President Donald Trump's alleged plans to overturn the 2020 election.

According to the testimonies of acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, Clark was tapped at some point as a potential replacement for the post of acting attorney general at the DoJ. The witnesses claimed in their testimonies for the committee that Clark was ready to use the post of the country's top prosecutor to push legislators in Georgia into delaying the certification of election results under the pre-text of suspected voter fraud. It was something the then-acting attorney general had refused to do.

Clark himself was introduced to Trump on December 22, 2020 by House Republican Scott Perry, Rosen testified.

The potential appointment of Clark as the new acting attorney general had found little support among the assistant attorneys general, who had protested en masse to such a move by threatening to resign in opposition, Richard Donoghue told the panel. Donoghue himself warned Trump against promoting Clark, pointing out his lack of expertise in electoral law and criminal investigation in general, for that matter. Clark never got the promotion, despite being mentioned as acting attorney general in the White House Records at some point.

Blanket Pardons for Lawmakers

Even though numerous Republican members of Congress were ready to back up Trump's claims of election fraud in 2020 and even vote against the certification of election results, not all of them were willing to risk the potential consequences they could face, according to the testimonies of then-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

She mentioned several Republican lawmakers who either addressed her or someone she knew on the matter of Trump issuing blanket, broad pardons in their name. The aide recalled House congressmen Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, Andy Biggs and Scott Perry being interested in such pardons.

Brooks suggested that every Republican ready to vote against the certification of election results deserved such a pardon, according to Hutchinson. The congressman himself explained that he was concerned about Democrats abusing their power to persecute the GOP members who opposed certification, but admitted being wrong in the end:

"There was a concern Democrats would abuse the judicial system by prosecuting and jailing Republicans who acted pursuant to their Constitutional or statutory duties under 3 USC 15. Fortunately, with time passage, more rational forces took over and no one was persecuted for performing their lawful duties, which means a pardon was unnecessary after all."