Jeffrey Bossert Clark

Clark has opposed regulation of greenhouse gases.[12] He has characterized US efforts to regulate greenhouse gases as “reminiscent of kind of a Leninistic program from the 1920s to seize control of the commanding heights of the economy.”[13][14] Regarding the 2010 EPA finding on greenhouse gas emissions, Clark wrote in a blog:

When did America risk coming to be ruled by foreign scientists and apparatchiks at the United Nations? The answer, it would seem, is ever since Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Obama, chose to issue a rule determining that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare.

— Jeffrey Clark[15]

Dissatisfied that the Justice Department disagreed with his charges of voter fraud in the 2020 election, President Trump floated a plan to replace the acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Clark. Trump expected Clark would then reverse the decisions of previous Attorneys General, open an investigation, and pressure Georgia election officials to void Biden's win in that state.[11][16] Rosen and his predecessor William Barr had previously resisted pressure from Trump to interfere.

He allegedly told Rosen and other top Justice Department officials that the Department should announce it was investigating serious election fraud issues; Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue rejected the suggestion, as the Department had previously determined and announced that there was no significant fraud.[17] Rosen and Donoghue were unaware that Clark had met with Trump. Clark later told Rosen that Trump intended to appoint him to replace Rosen. The Department's remaining senior leaders including Rosen, Donoghue, and head of the OLC Steven Engel agreed they would all resign if Rosen was removed. After Rosen and Clark presented their arguments to Trump in a White House meeting, the president backed away from the plan.[11][16]

Clark was reportedly introduced to Trump by Pennsylvania representative, Scott Perry, because Clark's "openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Mr. Trump with a welcome change from the acting attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president’s efforts to undo them."[18] Clark denied that he had plotted to replace Rosen, who had mentored Clark when both worked at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, or that he recommend any action based on inaccurate material he read on the internet. He added that he could not discuss any conversations he had with Trump or with Justice Department lawyers because of legal privilege. Clark further noted that he had been the lead signatory on the Justice Department's letter opposing a claim that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to reject electoral votes for Biden when Congress met to certify the result.[11]

Clark's plot with Trump to remove Rosen and to use the Justice Department's power to alter Georgia's election results was met with surprise by many of Clark's friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, who had previously viewed him as an "establishment lawyer" rather than a part of the "Trumpist faction of the party."[7]

On January 25, 2021, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General, Michael E. Horowitz, launched "an investigation into whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election."[19] [20]

Clark resigned from the Justice Department on January 14, 2021.[21]