and clark? and they sent out expeditions to apprehend them, and they came within a few hundred miles on two occasions to nearly arrest them. jefferson's instructions to lewis were quite clear. the object of your mission is to explore the missouri river and such, principal stream of it, as by its course and communication with the water of the pacific ocean. we offer the most direct and practical water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce. and this was jefferson's letter to lewis that became kind of his marching orders. lewis knew that -- i mean, this letter to lewis was epic, it's over six pages long, it has a whole list of things that jefferson wants him to do. so he writes a letter to his friend william clark, who he had served under in a campaign in the 1790s, asking him to join him as a co-commander. and he says if there's anything under these circumstances in this enterprise which would induce you to participate in its fatigues, its dangers, its honors, believe m

clark. we have led the teams at our two law firms in conducting the investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by governor cuomo. we have now completed our investigation and have made our findings and reached our conclusions. they're set forth in a detailed report issued today. as set forth in the report, we find that the governor, on numerous occasions, engaged in conduct that constitutes unlawful sex based harassment. specifically, we find that the governor sexually harassed a number of current and former new york state employees. he did so by, among other things, engaging in unwelcome and non-consensual touching, and also repeatedly making comments of a sexualized or gender based nature. our investigation revealed that these were not isolated incidents. they were part of a pattern. the governor's pattern of sexually harassing behavior was not limited to members of his own staff, but extended to other state employees, including a state trooper who served on his protective detail.

clark.ur report, we find that the culture within the executive chamber contributed to the conditions that allowed the governor's sexually harassing conduct to occur and to persist. the culture also informed the way in which the executive chamber responded to allegations of sexual harassment, as ms. clark has described, through violations of their own policies and through unlawful retaliation. well, what was the culture? words that witnesses have used repeatedly to describe it include toxic, hostile, abusive. others use words like fear, intimidation, bullying, vindictive. as one senior staffer stated bluntly as the sexual harassment allegations became public in march of this year in text exchanges with others, with another in the administration, i quote, “hopefully, when this is all done, people will realize the culture, even outside of the sexual harassment stuff, is not something you can get away with. you can't berate and terrify people 24/7.” it was a culture where you could not say no to

clark, jeffrey clark had been introduced to president trump by a pennsylvania politician and that clark had told the president he agreed that fraud had affected the election results. basically he auditioned before the president and let him know he'd be willing to be the trigger man for donald trump in his attempt to kill off american democracy in its present form and that is not hyperbole. it's a letter to the georgia governor, the speaker of the house and the president pro tem of the senate and drafted for rosen and donohue to sign officially from the u.s. department of justice. it says in part "the department of justice is investigating various igreg lirties in the 2020 election for president of the united states. at this time we've identified significant concerns and they've impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states including the state of georgia. while the department of justice believes the governor of georgia should immediately call special session to consider this important and urgent matter, if he declines to do so we share with you our view that the georgia general

ann clark is a partner at vlad nick and raskin and clark p.y.consider she focused on employment law issues on behalf of employees at trial and appellate levels and during the 30-year career miss clark has represented many in employment and sexual harassment and other discrimination cases in the private sector in education, and in government. she also has deep experience with retaliation, whistleblower, breach of contract and concentration in ben cases. june kim is a partner at cleary, gottlieb, steen and hamilton, llp. and for more than two decades he's worked at the highest levels of government and in private practice. from march 2017 to january 2018 he served as the acting united states attorney for the southern district of new york. as the most senior federal law enforcement officer in the district. he over saw all criminal and civil litigation conducted on behalf of the united states. before becomes acting united states attorney, mr. kim served in various leadership positions in the office, including deputy united states attorney, chief of t

and welcome to a james clark hall. it is fitting that we are here today to talk about infrastructure because you see, we are here and clark hall and mr. clark who was a 1951 civil engineering graduate was a builder. while the washington, d.c. city skyline is dotted with dozens of mr. clark's towering structures, he built more than buildings. he built beautiful and immaculate labs like the one you are sitting in. because when you invest in science, infrastructure, you invest in the spaces that spark innovation. to dramatically change our future. that is not hyperbole. that is fact. the world is a better place because of research born out of the university of maryland and its labs. if you walk up two flights of stairs to the lab, we have dr. fishel's research and more than 200 patents to thank for modern medical stents, lifetime pacemaker, and implantable insulin pumps, improving the lives of many. if you walk just one block west, you will find the physical science complex, built with federal funding, and the state of ma

meadows is asking them to call on clark because he knows clark is on the team. the next day meadows arranged a call between trump and georgia's republican secretary of state when trump infamously said, quote, i just want to find 11,780 votes, one more than what he needed. so mark meadows is in on the plot, obviously, and clark and trump together have a plan. here's what it appears to have been. they were going to try to use the completely fabricated allegations of voting fraud and irregularities that had been pumped into the atmosphere by trump and repeated by his allies and the right-wing media and use that to have the department of justice officially send a letter to the six most closely contested states, five of which have republican-controlled legislatures, and say, hey, this is the official blessing of the u.s. department of justice telling you the results in your state are tainted. they can't be trusted. we don't really know who won. and by the way, you have the constitutional authority to call a special session, select a slate of trump electors and send t

clark. e.he nature of the investigation -- i'm wondering if you can speak as to the legal issues you are looking at, the fourth amended and the like, and also whether this is intended to send a message to other entities which routinely seek across the country the belongings -- sees across the country the belongings of the homeless. ms. clarke: the basis of our investigation includes the violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994. whether those sweeps unlawfully seizing and disposing of the belongings of persons experiencing homelessness may indeed trigger a violation of the fourth amendment. that is another investigation we are launching today. >> mr. attorney general, you mentioned the eviction and the dangers posed by massive action. were you in the justice department consulted by this administration's reversal on the eviction band, and are you confident you will be able to get it through the supreme court? a.g. garland: as i said, the effects might be devastating book on individua

clark and mr. kim and their respective firms were chosen to lead the investigation because of their decades of work at the highest levels, their deep expertise on matters in question, and their careers fighting to uphold the rule of law. anne clark is a partner at raskin & clark p.c. and during her more than 30-year career, ms. clark has represented clients in a variety of employment and sexual harassment and other discrimination cases in government and private. june kim is a partner the clearly, gottlieb and hamilton l.l.p. for more than two decades he worked at the highest levels of government and in private practice. from march of 2017 to 2018, he act as the most senior federal law enforcement officer in the district. he over saw all criminal and civil litigation conducted on behalf of the united states. before becoming acting united states attorney, he served in various leadership positions in the office, including deputy united states attorney, chief of the criminal division and chief counsel

but he cannot force jeffrey clark to testify. why not? because jeffrey clark is a former justice department official. and he can't compel that testimony. >> wow. i learn so much from both of you. thank you so much. and somebody's dog really enjoyed that as well. >> i kept him quiet the whole time. >> we're big with pets on "velshi." >> there is some treats going on behind the scenes here. >> thanks to both of. . good to see you this morning. eugene daniels who us correspondent at politico and co-author of the politico playbook. ruth m-columnist, editor at the “washington post” with a article on jeffrey clark. >>> joining me now the pennsylvania senator. casey. i talked to you about stuff this congress and legislative priorities. but i have to ask you about this. because so much happened since the last time you and i talked where we have discovered that this -- in pipe dream of donald trump's to undermine the election was substantially more than a pipe treem. it was a plot. >> yeah, ali, i think what you heard in the last discussion is the

i'm jeff clark.ivision. >> jeffrey clark also has become a focal point for congressional investigators. clark drafted this letter to georgia officials telling them doj found evidence of voting irregularities in several states affecting the outcome when the department had not. rosen and donahue stopped the letter from being sent, but clark's efforts to back up trump's false claims didn't end there. sources tell cnn clark insisted that chinese intelligence used special kinds of they are mom meters to change votes. clark wouldn't believe it. and lawmakers are dropping hints that clark might not have been the only one assisting trump's efforts. >> well, it may have been more than just jeffrey clark. it may have been others in the trump orbit, and that's the focus of our investigation going forward. >> are you worried that there were sitting members of congress who were involved in this? >> it is a legitimate question. >> so far it is unclear exactly who clark interacted with. clark's representatives are

i'm jeff clark.d of the civil division. >> he was in charge of a department at doj that would have had no role investigating voter proud. but in the weeks after the election, clark seemed to cozy up to trump by parroting the president's false claims of fraud. >> that was a rigged election. >> and pushing the justice department to step in. >> jeffrey clark reportedly told you that your days as acting attorney general bewere numbere. is that true? >> congressman, the items you are talking about, i have seen media accounts. >> jeffrey rosen has never publically confirmed the intense pressure campaign coming from clark to get the doj to help overturn the election for trump. but new documents and detailed uncovered in connection with an in depth probe shows just how far clark went. a draft letter details how clark planned to write georgia officials to falsesy say doj found voting irregularities in several states. he wanted them to sign on, but they flat-out refused be donovan responding in e-mail, there i

new reporting on jeffrey clark.er of the justice department under the former president and his apparent willingness to go ahead with the president's attempts to undermine the election despite receiving a classified briefing that said his information was simply wrong. that's coming up. ♪ ♪ [sfx: radio being tuned] welcome to allstate. ♪ [band plays] ♪ a place where everyone lives life well-protected. ♪ and even when things go a bit wrong, we've got your back. here, things work the way you wish they would. and better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. centrum multigummies aren't just great tasting... they're power-packed vitamins... that help unleash your energy. loaded with b vitamins... ...and other key essential nutrients... ...it's a tasty way to conquer your day. try centrum multi gummies. now with a new look. ♪ ♪ oh, focaccia! ah, there's no place like panera. enjoy the toasty, saucy chipotle chicken avocado melt on freshly baked brea

colin clarke, s-ueakin the suffering here. colin clarke, speaking to _ the suffering here.larke, speaking to me _ the suffering here. colin clarke, speaking to me just _ the suffering here. colin clarke, speaking to me just a _ the suffering here. colin clarke, speaking to me just a short - the suffering here. colin clarke, l speaking to me just a short while ago. you are watching bbc news. let's have a reminder of the news that has dominated the last few hours because there has been a double bomb attack on kabul airport where crowds have been gathering in the hope of boarding an evacuation flight to escape afghanistan. the taliban herceptin 13 and 20 people have been killed and in the last few minutes, the has confirmed at least four us service members were killed in those attacks. several others were being treated for injuries. the pentagon says there are two blasts, one happened close to the airport's abbey gate and the other close to nearby baron hotel. the hotel had been used by some western nations as a staging point for the evacuation since the airlift began. i have

what did jeffrey clark do? he took that nefarious suggestion and he ran with it. drafted a letter to state officials in georgia and five other states saying in essence, we think the election might be corrupt. here's how you can get rid of the slate of electors for joe biden and pick selectors for donald trump and basically corruptly throw him the election. that act by jeffrey clark drafting the letter, circulating it to other doj officials, he didn't have to send it. that's an overt act that proves the crime of conspiracy. once the conspiracy is committed because you have the agreement and one overt act, you don't have to go on to commit the object of the conspiracy. the crime of conspiracy is complete. that's what we see in the reporting of what donald trump and jeffrey clark did. >> even though now we have the justice department in the hands of sane people and people who were not overtly corrupt, right, but at the state level what republicans have done is to remove all of the people who would have -- who stood in the way the first time and replaced them with flu

jeffrey clark did that. he should be investigated. >> and how do democrats prevent donald trump from running again? given what he's already done, the damage he's already done to democracy, both kind of not just in a doj sense, but physical damage to the building you serve in? is using the 14th amendment a possibility and if not, why not? >> the goal is not to prevent the former president from running again. it should be to hold him accountable. in the last four years, the evidence is overwhelming that he committed obstruction of justice. he also violated federal campaign finance laws. the same law that landed his co-conspirator, michael cohn, in prison. i hope they look at all the evidence and that they do whatever normal investigations they would do for anybody in america because no one should be above the law. not the president, not the former president. >> and you're right and we've heard a lot of democrats say that. i'm just looking for the actions. one last question. is merit garland, the current ag, th

but that clark didn't believe ratcliffe.o information that would convince him otherwise. >> jeffrey clark is turning out to be trump's guy in the department of justice. and he tried to replace the attorney general with this person that would have been disastrous. thank goodness that there are other people in the doj, who still thought that they were a separate department, apart from the -- from trump. but this went far. you know, president went far to -- to get -- to -- to perpetuate his big lie and to overturn the election result. >> i mean, we saw a process underway here, right? repeated fronts where the president was -- was trying to overturn the election. >> uh-huh. >> abc news reporting that clark had actually circulated a letter, internally, in the doj. falsely, claiming that the justice department had identified, quote, significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election. we know, already, that -- that -- that bill barr who, of course, prior, was trump's guy, had said no. had not found such evidenc

you think anything more about jeffrey clark?i really don't. he's a lawyer first head of the environmental natural resources division, then led the civil division, but beyond that, i don't know much about him. >> the second is how do they decide whether or not there was criminal liability for either jeffrey clark and/or the former president trump? >> one of the things prosecutors will do is look at the information they have, trying to get a full picture of what was happen, and the intent, the intent of those involved. that may require interviewing people around. mark meadows, for example, the chief of staff, strikes me as somebody who would be very important to understand his role. people who talked to jeffrey clark, and anyone else. who might have n prosecutors can use legal process to get e-mails, text messages, other documents to help understand what was going on in people's communications. >> if, though, the president is able to exert executive privilege, would someone like mark meadows be able to skirt around testifying? >>

clark. as set forth in our report, we find that the culture within the executive chamber contributed to the conditions that allowed the governor to sexually harassing conduct to occur and to persist. the culture also informed a way in which the executive chamber responded to allegations of sexual harassment as ms. clark has described through violations of their own policies and through unlawful retaliation. what was the culture? words that witnesses have used repeatedly to describe it include toxic, hostile, abusive. others use words like fear, intimidation, bullying, vindictive. as one senior staffer stated bluntly, as the sexual harassment allegations became public in march of this year in text exchanges with others -- with another in the administration, i quote, hopefully when this is all done, people will realize the culture even outside of the sexual harassment stuff, is not something you can get away with. you can't berate and terrify people 24/7, close quote. it was a culture where yo

and clark said, i think we should get it out as soon as possible.e no valid downside to sending out the letter. but an hour later very promptly donoghue sent back a lengthy rebuttal saying this, there is no chance that i would sign this letter or anything remotely like this from where i stand, this is not even within the realm of possibility. and the acting a.g. sending donoghue an email that said, i confirmed again today that i am not prepared to sign such a letter. so in the end this letter was never sent. but it is part of this trove of evidence that lawmakers as well likely the doj inspector general, they are all sifting through it to uncover the lengths that trump and his allies went to push their claims of election fraud to hopefully get the election overturned, in their view. and this probably won't be the last that we hear. the doj has told trump officials they can participate in congress's investigation, whether it pertains to january 6th or these claims of election fraud. and, wolf, it appears that some of these doj officials are already t

helen clark, thank ou for over and over. helen clark, thank you forjoining — over and over.over and over. helen clark, thank you forjoining us on _ over and over. helen clark, thank you forjoining us on newsday. i if you want to get in touch with me, i'm on twitter, @bbckarishma. looking forward to hearing your thoughts. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme, new zealand's laurel hubbard makes history as the first openly transgender woman to compete in a solo event. we'll be live in tokyo to find out more. the question was whether we wanted to save our people and japanese as well and win the war, or whether we wanted to take a chance on being able to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at two o'clock this morning. mr bush, like most other people, was clearly caught by surprise. we call for the immediate i and unconditional withdrawal of all iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigour, vitality and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long, and the queen mother is said to be qu

attorney general so that clark himself could sign the letter. that's when donahue convened a late afternoon call laying out clark's efforts to replace mr. rosen. should mr. rosen be fired, they all agreed to resign en masse. that coup that almost came off, right, was a product of two things, the anti-st democratic, flatly dick that toerl aspirationings of donald trump, which have always been there for decades, as well as mark meadows and jeffrey clark, men whose names should live in infamiliary. it was part of a tradition that is being cultivated and revived on the right that comes from a contempt for the voters and a contempt more deeply for democracy. freedom, liberty and democracy. there's been a long conservative lineage in rejecting democracy. you envount countered it, i'm sure. drawn from the fact that indeed our founding document has a complicated relationship to democracy, to self-rule. the fact that the electoral college is enshrined as an institution, we don't have a popular vote for. even though we should. the current system has resul

jeffrey clark did that. he should be investigated. >> how do democrats prevent donald trump, from running again? given what he's already done? the damage is already done to mock or see. not just in a doj sense, but physical damage to the building you serve in. he's using the 14th amendment, a possibility? and if not why not? >> the goal is not to prevent the former president from running again, it should be to hold him accountable, for the last four years, it's overwhelming that he committed, and violated federal campaign finance laws, the same law that landed his coconspirator in prison. and now with this attempted coup, i hope the department of justice, looks at all the evidence and they do whatever normal investigation they would do for anybody in america. because no one should be above the law. not the president, not the former president. >> you're right, we've heard a lot of democrats say that. i'm just looking for the action. so one last question, i'll ask you when asked cynthia moment ago. is merrick

and to top it all off, jeffery clark, quote, drafted a letter that he asked mr. rosen to send to georgia state legislators wrongly asserting that they should void mr. biden's victory because the justice department was investigating accusations of voter fraud in the state. here is the senate judiciary committee chairman dig durbin earlier today on msnbc. >> there's a lot of information we'd like to gather from mr. clark, will help bring some clarity to the situation. it certainly raised a question and mr. rosen understood that mr. clark was waiting in the wings and if he didn't do president trump's requests, comply with those requests, he very easily could have been replaced. >> donald trump abused his office. for anyone with eyes or ears before the 2016 election you could see the potential for abuse was high. it is possibly even more alarming that trump's abuses were the abuses of the people around him. from people who were not gold toilet grifters like trump. people like jeffery clark all too eager it seems to break the law for a man who lost the election. befor

it's an act of disloyalty by donald trump, rey clark. real consequences. >> jeffrey clark is the trump loyalest at the center of this and abc news has gotten a letter showing he tried to meddle in the georgia election. he was vying for the job in the hours long oval office meeting jessica describes as "apprentice" style and wants to replace him with clark and trying to overturn the election there. the on consequences of all of t could have been incredible. >> absolutely. look, this is two days before the insurrectionist attack on the capitol and we see behind the scenes, this hinchman willing to do the president's bidding, drafting a letter to encourage the governor to overturn an election in georgia turning the country to complete chaos and counting of the electoral college vote. this is more than cynical career but jeffrey clark. this demands accountability. we see all the evidence that the president was conducting a full-court press to try to overturn the election, to turn t overturn the democracy. there is no greater sin in our repub

so, jeff clark sent over this draft letter, dated december 28th. he also sent over an e-mail, accompanying the letter, to the attorney general and the deputy attorney general. in that email he spelled out exactly that the plan was to do this, not just in georgia but, in multiple states. it says quote, the concept is to send it to the governor, speaker, and president pro-temp. he says temp. it should be president pro tem of each relevant state to indicate that in light of time urgency and sworn evidence of election irregularities presented to courts and committees, should each assemble and make a decision about elector appointment in light of their deliberations. so, they're going to -- they're going to send this thing to georgia saying the justice department has found serious irregularities. they are going to send this thing to georgia. they believe republicans in the georgia legislature are on our side. and will act on it. will actually do it. they'll replace the election results in georgia with their own choice of trump electors. and they plan to

clark.is from jim comey, he wrote about it and talked about it. he tried to have a process so the president wasn't always calling the fbi director to tell him to let flynn go. the failure of any process to protect institutions from being politicized seems to be a pattern that keeps repeating itself. i wonder what you make of sort of the now detailed, anecdotal evidence of trump having his man at the highest levels at the justice department and, you know, do you wonder what would have happened if he had succeeded in getting rid of rosen and leaving clark inside? >> remember what had happened under attorney general barr. barr was complicit and helped the president move the big lie before the election and after the election until he couldn't take it anymore in the final days. so, again, i'm really delighted that we have such public servants who saved us from the brink, but mr. trump is somebody who reveals that he never cared one wit for his oath of office. he never cared one wit for democracy

a man named jeff clark. drafted this letter.e governor of georgia, the head of the state assembly there in the head of the state senate. dear governor and mister speaker quote, the department of justice is investigating various irregularities of the 2020 election. the department will update you as we were able and investigatory progress. but 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. the next paragraph of the letter, he's then linking to the rudy giuliani fake hearing in georgia in december, that was so bonkers, it ultimately contributed to giuliani having his lace suspended in multiple jurisdictions. but that's what jeff clark sites as the evidence for this terrible revelations in georgia. jeff clark's letter continues quote, in light of these developments, the department, meaning the u.s. department of justice, recommends that the georgia general is simply should convene in a special session to take additional test

you had jeffrey clark, who was another official at justice department.alking to behind the scenes. and jeffrey rosen. both went up to the white house, where the president essentially had these men vie for the job of attorney general. the president was looking for someone who was going to do his bidding. rosen was not willing to do that and, eventually, rosen and other officials talked the president out of firing rosen keeping him on the job. but i mean, it's -- it's an un -- just an extraordinary episode to happen inside the white house. again, just a couple days before the attack on the u.s. capitol, which was carried out by people who were believing the president's lies about the election. >> right. and if they had found some henchmen at the department of justice to go along with that, i mean, that would -- >> course of history, right? the course of history would have been changed. >>. incredible. evan perez, thank you. just to amplify both the factual absurdity but also the real danger of that letter we mentioned a moment ago, which was drafted but ne

colin clarke, s-ueakin the suffering here. colin clarke, speaking to _ the suffering here._ the suffering here. colin clarke, speaking to me just a short i the suffering here. colin clarke, l speaking to me just a short while ago. you are watching bbc news. let's have a reminder of the news that has dominated the last few hours because there has been a double bomb attack on kabul

yet, that did not stop clark's dedication to the big lie. and has this reporting. your reporting shows just how far it seems this justice official was willing to go for donald trump. >> yeah, that was jeffrey clark. he was the acting head of the civil division and he was known for being unremarkable at the justice department until those key crucial days in late december where he suddenly became the man at the justice department who was helping to front these false conspiracies that the president wanted people to believe that the election was stolen and that somehow tallies were changed. in the case of jeffrey clark, he said he had his own secret intelligence sources, former official that he said he was getting this information from and he insisted that he needed a classified briefing and that's why jeffrey rosen and other officials there, they thought, well, if we give him a briefing, he'll go away with this non-sense and in the end he sat down with change. he believed that some of the intelligence was being hidden from and still continued t

colin clark speaking to me earlier. you can - west. colin clark speaking to me earlier.ry on the bbc news website, bbc .com/ news. you can also download the bbc news app, of course. injapan, officials have told nearly two million people to evacuate, as torrential rain continues to batter western parts of the country. at least one person has died, with three missing. the bbc�*s azadeh moshiri reports. streets submerged, flooded by torrential rain. nearly 2 million people injapan have been urged to evacuate their homes and seek shelter. sirens. the government sending more than 150 troops, police and firefighters to help. with rescuers using lifeboats to tote the vulnerable through flooded roads. and digging through mud to look for the missing. translation: i heard a loud noise and thought it was an earthquake, when i went outside i was surprised to see mud, stones and trees scattered around. i'm scared because even more rain is forecast for the area. according to the government, at least 1a rivers have burst their banks with western japan hit the hardest. the areas of saga

replace him with jeffrey clark. um, he also was trying to hold the line.ese people. and while i didn't agree with a lot of what they were doing, you saw attempts of them trying to hold up the rule of law over people, like jeffrey clark. and that's why it is so dangerous because you can't have a president putting in, basically, campaign-style people in the justice department who aren't following the law. >> yeah. you were at the white house this evening, when president biden signed the bill you co-sponsored honoring the capitol police officers with the congressional gold medal for their actions on january 6th. 21 house republicans opposed the bill. what do you say to some of your republican colleagues in both chambers of congress who are, still, trying to rewrite history and deny what happened that day and make it seem as though it was just a regular day with tourists coming to the capitol? >> well, it was absolutely absurd that 20 some of them in the house didn't support it. and the fact that they said it was, was because it had the word insurrection. i wa

jeffrey clark tried to take over. we heard people talk publicly about this, meaning it happened at the white house, which people have said was like the game show apprentice. it was deadly serious where they were both making their case for a. z a.g. jeffrey clark was choose me, i have your back on election fraud. choose me, i'm quitting, he's quitting. he backed off. it was that close to jeffrey clark becoming attorney general. >> it was not for lack of trying. >> absolutely. >> all right. where does the current attorney general stand in this drama me? >> merrick garland has work to do. he has three major task. reestablish d.o.j.'s independence. he's done a good job. six weeks ago he issued new rules about keeping d.o.j. separate from communications with the white house. cooperation with congress. we have subpoenas coming soon. garland said he's not going to block d.o.j. employees from testifying. that should clear the way or at least remove one of the obstacles to people like rosen, donohue, maybe barr, jeffrey clark

we just mentioned your colleague wants to question jeffrey clark.ou think he should answer? >> you know, i remember jeffrey clark's name in one very big way and that was the reports from "the new york times" that trump was trying to install him as the attorney general over the acting attorney general jeffrey rosen for the purposes of him maintaining the lie when it came to the election. so what we want to know about now is what his role was when it came to election suppression, when it came to questioning the results of the final results of the election, and there's a lot of information out there about what he could have been doing with georgia. and i just step back from this. this isn't a campaign. this is the justice department. in america, the president isn't kingsessing. the law is kingsessing. that's the first thing. he has an obligation to the law of the united states, not to donald trump. that is the oath of office that he took. then the second fees of this is just exactly as you point out, what he did and we are by the way, trying to make su

, and jeffrey rosen and jack clark.ted them to weigh in on the election having serious problems and there is a telephone call that the president had with jeff rosen that said why don't you say that the election is corrupt, and let me take it from there with the house republicans, and jeffrey clark drafted a letter that he wanted the attorney general to sign and send to legislators in georgia suggesting that they want to go into the special session so they could potentially issue electoral votes of their own if they had questions about the outcome of the georgia election. of course, the current and former justice department officials are not a problem for the committee to get to, because the white house has said it won't assert executive privilege over them, and the justice department has said they can testify, which is what the committee has been doing so far, and that is relatively easy work. >> talk to me about who jeffrey clark is, pete. what do we know about him? >> well, he was a trump appointee as you noted and he

i'll read you just a part of what clark wrote. to jeff rosen and rich donahue, who was the general attorney at the time. he said, i think we should get it out as as soon as possible. personally, i see no valid downsides to sends out this letter. richard donaghue said, there is no chance that i would sign this letter or anything reprmotely le this. and rosen said, i confirmed again today that i am not prepared to sign such a letter. clark ended up not getting the job, rosen remained on the job until president biden was inaugurated on january 20th. but, wolf, it really just goes to show you the efforts beyond what we know the president was doing and his lawyers were doing, some of these extraordinary crazy claims that they were making inside the justice department. these officials, who were basically standing tall, were trying to prevent chaiyasombat -- chaos from ensuing. >> i'm glad they did. evan perez with excellent, excellent reporting. david axelrod is with us, cnn legal and national security analyst. carrie cordero is with us

clark.rview these men and reveal these facts, here is the noted commentator and war correspondent, bill dowds. >> the eventses you are about to hear are shocking. the films you are about to see are not pleasant. some of them are revealed for the first time. but what you will see and what you will hear is the stark truth that every american should know. ♪ ♪ .. their official army. they are only a tiny fraction of communist atrocities and we can't began to commemorate the terrible crimes committed by the communist military and civilian prisoners but we are going to tell you about some of those crimes then we are going to show you some of the brutal result not to shock you but to reveal the true nature of the enemy, to give you an idea of the ruthless communist mind and what would happen to civilization under communist rule. nevermind that these atrocities have taken place not in the dark ages of -- but in 1950, 51 and 52. look closely. we know it isn't a pretty sight but you remember what you

in pittsburgh, cloin clark. -- colin clark. the head of the international relations apartment at a university. welcome to the program. victoria, i would like to start with you. you are there right now in afghanistan. feeling it, living it. tell us what it is like. what are people thinking? where is this heading? >> while, many are quite concerned about the security situation. a lot of my colleagues now are trying to leave the country. it did not fall to the taliban. it has given them quite some hope. all in all, -- the fears that the population of urban centers is not going to let the taliban take it so easily. >> one of those urban centers, thousands are trapped and fleeing for their lives in the province. the taliban continue their advanced bodies in the streets and it is a troubling situation, isn't it? >> indeed, it is. 2000 400 people were only displaced yesterday and there are 40 civilian deaths or more than that. casualties. this is almost the seventh day that this was going on. it is not completely under hold of the tal

there were ones, including jeffrey clark, who were apparently willing to do so.of the justice department and here he is asking the acting attorney general to urge georgia to convene a special session basically to try to appoint a slate of electors who don't represent how georgians voted and on the basis of bogus claims of fraud. it's really breath taking and it shows how very close we came through the use of this fraudulent but purportedly lawful process losing our gem si. >> the report from abc news, that's the guy, this report from abc news detailing the contents of a draft, he mentioned he was the high ranking justice department official who was apparently more on board than the acting attorney general jeff rosen. the dennis hastert urges the georgia legislature to go into special session over the results. it's completely over theline. you look at these events individually and you look at them in totality. the attempts to interfere with the results, the big lie, the insurrection, they are all part of a piece. >> well, they are. look, in terms of all of the for

one, you used the term trump loyalist to jeffrey clark.ck because of how absurd the letter is. one of the things richard donahue writes in his email in response to this is we as the justice department don't advise states as to how to handle their election certification processes. this is simply a misunderstanding and an abuse of the power of the justice department and clark clearly didn't understand that and did not have the justice department's interests at heart. so, you know, i think we should also -- yes, there are reasons to criticize both jeffrey rosen and richard donoughe, the two people to whom this was sent because they were complicit in any number of let's say untoward actions of the justice department, but they knew enough to know that this was nonsense and it was not rooted in law and should never have happened. and they put the brakes on it. >> and there's reporting out there that indicates kwlarks eager to get them out of the way to do trump's bidding, too. margaret, the house oversight committee reportedly had this and other

jeff clark, jeff rosen's subordinate played a key role in this. who is jeff clark? why was he involved? >> he was a justice department official. he headed the environmental natural resources division near the end of the administration. he was also promoted to be the acting head of the civil division, the division that litigates the united states's position in courts. unbeknownst to all the other officials he had been in contact with president trump. we know he was put in touch with the president by representative scott perry of pennsylvania and others. nobodies in the justice department understood what those conversations were about, didn't know they were happening until the end of december when jeff clark started to approach the acting attorney general, the acting deputy attorney general and others asking what the justice department could do to publicly declare the results of the election invalid. this was a shock to his colleagues. they felt they had remember vetted these claims. they were on every front pushing back against white house efforts to get them to make