WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s inspector general has opened an investigation into whether department staff members sought to use the agency to alter the outcome of the 2020 election and overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
The department didn’t say what prompted Inspector General Michael Horowitz to open the inquiry, but it came after The New York Times reported that Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of its civil division, had discussed a plan with former President Donald Trump to pressure politicians in Georgia to overturn the state’s results.
Clark’s name wasn’t mentioned in the department’s two-paragraph release on Monday. He resigned from the Justice Department Jan. 14, less than a week before the end of Trump’s presidency, and didn’t have a new job lined up at the time.
The inspector general’s office “is making this statement, consistent with DOJ policy, to reassure the public that an appropriate agency is investigating the allegations,” spokeswoman Stephanie Logan said in a statement Monday.
Clark acknowledged meeting with Trump but said he didn’t devise a plan to oust then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, or “formulate recommendations for action based on factual inaccuracies.”
“There was a candid discussion of options and pros and cons with the president,” he told Bloomberg Law on Friday, adding that legal privileges prevented him from “divulging specifics regarding the conversation.