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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann is being subpoenaed by the Department of Justice (DOJ). He is billed to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and is expected to present documents and testimony.
Herschmann
represented Donald Trump in the first impeachment trial against the former
president. He later joined the White House as a senior adviser providing legal
advice to Trump.
Cipollone and Philbin subpoenaed
Pat
Cipollone, a former White House counsel, and Patrick Philbin, a former deputy
counsel have also been subpoenaed, according to Politico.
Was Herschmann part of Trump's effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat?
Herschmann
clashed with other Trump aides and advisers who pushed the defeated president
to fight his election loss and was present in many key meetings at the time.
Herschmann was present at a high-stakes meeting where several top Justice
Department officials threatened to resign if Trump sacks then Attorney General Jeff
Rosen and replace him with his subordinate who agreed to further the former
president’s baseless election fraud claims, according to Politico.
Herschmann
disagreed with Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn when they advised Trump to use
the military to seize voting machines.
Herschmann
has also testified before the House Select Committee investigating the January
6 insurrection where he described lambasting Jeffrey Clark, a top Justice
Department lawyer at the time, during a White House meeting on January 3, 2021.
Clark urged Trump to remove Rosen and give him the job.
What was Clark's plan to overturn 2020 White House elections for Trump?
Clark had encouraged his DOJ colleagues to send letters to state legislators alleging that the department had found evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election where Trump was defeated by President Joe Biden.
Former Attorney
General Bill Barr, dismissed the voter fraud lies, saying the department had
found no evidence of electoral fraud.
Herschmann
recalled during his testify at the panel that he found Clark’s idea to be
“asinine” and dryly brought up Clark’s past as an environmental lawyer,
according to Politico.
“I thought
Jeff’s proposal — Clark’s proposal was nuts,” Herschmann told the committee. “I
mean this guy, at a certain point, ‘Listen, the best I can tell is the only
thing you know about environmental and elections challenges is they both start
with E. And based on your answers tonight, I’m not even certain you know
that.’”