First on CNN: Trump DOJ official cooperating with Justice Department’s criminal Jan. 6 probe

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice

Former Justice Department staffer Ken Klukowski, who worked with Jeffrey Clark at the agency, is cooperating in the DOJ’s January 6 criminal investigation, after investigators searched and copied his electronic records several weeks ago.

“We’ve been fully cooperating both with the Department of Justice and the Select Committee, and we’ll continue with that cooperation,” Klukowski’s lawyer Ed Greim said in a statement on Thursday.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Klukowski’s proximity to Clark suggests investigators are seeking more information about the former Justice Department lawyer. Trump had sought to install Clark as attorney general in the days before the January 6 attack on the US Capitol as top officials refused to go along with his vote fraud claims.

Last month, federal investigators conducted a search of Clark’s home as part of the agency’s sweeping investigation into the effort to overturn the 2020 elections.

The agency has already brought two top aides to former Vice President Mike Pence in front of a federal grand jury, a move that signals its probe has reached inside Trump’s White House and that investigators are looking at conduct directly related to Trump and his closest allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

CNN reported Wednesday that former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson is also cooperating with the Justice Department.

But Klukowski could provide unique insight into Clark and efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. He was at the center of an effort by Trump to get the Justice Department to falsely claim there was significant voter fraud in Georgia and other states that he lost.

In the days before January 6, Clark helped Trump devise a plan to oust then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, place himself atop the department, and have the DOJ intervene in Georgia to set aside its voting results in order to sway the state to Trump.

Klukowski was subpoenaed by the House select committee last year on November 9 and was seen arriving for his deposition on December 15.

This story has been updated with additional details.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.