CNN —
A federal judge during a hearing Monday has had significant questions of former Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark’s efforts to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court and has disputed Clark’s version of events after the 2020 election.
The case stems from Clark’s efforts to use his senior role at the Justice Department to help former President Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election despite the objections of his bosses.
Clark isn’t present at the hearing, an absence that became especially notable after US District Judge Steve Jones said he would not accept a sworn statement from Clark as evidence in the case.
The judge seemed visibly frustrated and annoyed at times, and his probing questions directed at one of Clark’s attorneys at one point led Trump attorney Steve Sadow, who was in the courtroom, to whisper, “This is not good.”
Clark and other defendants seeking to move their cases to federal court say they were acting on behalf of the federal government after the election, thus they should be able to have their state charges tried before a federal judge. They could also potentially have somewhat friendlier trial settings or get the charges dropped entirely by invoking immunity protections afforded to federal officials.
Clark attorney Harry MacDougald argued that “not even an iota of (Clark’s) actions would be possible if he wasn’t a federal official.”
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