A former assistant lawyer general who aligned himself with previous President Donald Trump just after he misplaced the 2020 election has declined to be totally interviewed by a Residence committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, ending a deposition just after all around 90 minutes on Friday.

Jeffrey Clark, who championed Trump’s initiatives to overturn the election, informed the committee he would not respond to concerns centered on Trump’s assertion of government privilege in an ongoing court case, according to a person familiar with the closed-door meeting who was granted anonymity to explore it. Clarke left the interview with his lawyer, who informed reporters that they were being heading “household.”

Clark, who was subpoenaed by the committee to appear, would not respond to any issues from reporters as he departed.

A committee spokesman also declined to remark.

Clark’s refusal is just the newest fallout from Trump’s endeavor to assert govt privilege in a lawsuit he submitted versus the committee and the Countrywide Archives. The go well with aims to block the government from releasing a tranche of inner White Household paperwork, which includes contact logs, drafts of remarks, speeches and handwritten team notes from before and during the insurrection. President Joe Biden has so significantly waived executive privilege on just about all the paperwork that the committee has asked for, citing the panel’s need to have to investigate the violent assault.

Amid the legal wrangling, the Home panel has struggled to obtain cooperation from some of Trump’s other top rated allies — together with his longtime associate Steve Bannon and former White Residence Chief of Personnel Mark Meadows — as it conducts a sweeping investigation outside of community see. The committee has so significantly interviewed extra than 150 witnesses so far, in accordance to two people common with the interviews who asked for anonymity due to the fact they were being not authorized to talk about them.

The interviews have involved a broad swath of former and existing executive branch officers, Trump marketing campaign aides, law enforcement officers and others. The panel has also talked to various folks who aided organize a rally the early morning of Jan. 6 the place Trump instructed his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Clark is a single of almost 20 persons the committee has subpoenaed so significantly. A report issued by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee past thirty day period thorough how he championed Trump’s endeavours to undo the election results and clashed as a consequence with Justice Office superiors who resisted the stress, culminating in a dramatic White Residence conference at which Trump ruminated about elevating Clark to attorney standard. He did not do so immediately after various aides threatened to resign.

The chairman of the Dwelling Jan. 6 committee, Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, wrote in Clark’s subpoena that the committee’s probe “has exposed credible evidence that you tried to require the Department of Justice in endeavours to interrupt the tranquil transfer of power” and his attempts “risked involving the Division of Justice in actions that lacked evidentiary foundation and threatened to subvert the rule of legislation.”

It is unclear regardless of whether the panel will move to keep Clark in contempt of Congress, as they did with Bannon. The House voted very last month to propose the fees against Bannon, and it is now up to the Justice Division to determine regardless of whether to prosecute.

The panel could also pursue comparable contempt charges towards Meadows and former Trump administration aides Dan Scavino and Kashyap Patel, who have all been in extended conversations with the committee about testifying right after they have been subpoenaed.

Inspite of Trump’s untrue claims about a stolen election — the key determination for the violent mob that broke into the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Biden’s victory — the outcomes were being verified by point out officers and upheld by the courts. Trump’s possess lawyer general, William Barr, experienced explained the Justice Department discovered no proof of common fraud that could have improved the outcomes.

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Linked Press journalist Rick Gentilo contributed to this report.