Justice Department searches home of former Trump official Jeffrey Clark
He said agents would not even let him put his pants on when the raid began before 7 a.m.
Federal investigators on Wednesday searched the Virginia residence of former Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, a fierce defender of former President Donald Trump.
Just before 7 a.m., Clark rushed to his front door in response to loud banging, he told Fox News one day after the raid.
"I quickly figured out that there were agents there. I opened the door and asked for the courtesy to be able to put some pants on and was told, no, you've got to come outside. So I came outside," he explained.
On Thursday, before Clark spoke to the media, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen testified to the House Jan. 6 Committee that Clark met with then-President Trump and discussed election fraud theories in the lead up to the Capitol riot.
Agents took all of the electronics from his house, he told Fox's Tucker Carlson.
"I just think we're living in an era that I don't recognize. And increasingly I don't recognize the country anymore with these kinds of Stasi-like things happening," he said, referencing the East German secret police.
The Jan. 6 committee voted in December to recommend contempt charges against Jeffrey Clark after he and his attorney "largely refused to answer the committee’s questions" one month prior.
Center for American Restoration President Russ Vought, who served as the Trump administration's budget director and currently employs Clark, tweeted about his employee's ordeal.
"The new era of criminalizing politics is worsening in the US. Yesterday more than a dozen DOJ law enforcement officials searched Jeff Clark’s house in a pre dawn raid, put him in the streets in his pjs, and took his electronic devices," Vought wrote.
"All because Jeff saw fit to investigate voter fraud. This is not America, folks. The weaponization of govt must end. Let me be very clear. We stand by Jeff and so must all patriots in this country," he added.
The Department of Justice reportedly contacted at least two other Trump officials in multiple states on Wednesday as well. The Washington Post reported that the FBI delivered subpoenas to Georgia attorney Brad Carver and former Trump campaign official Thomas Lane.