Jeffrey Clark, one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in Georgia, attracted backlash over the weekend after he fired off a bizarre religious attack against a fellow former Justice Department official for attending Burning Man.
“Why am I not surprised that Neal Katyal made it a priority to get to a neopagan ritual?” Clark tweeted, sharing a post from Katyal at the festival.
“See picture below in lower right,” he continued. “Pray that these folks come to the light & realize that the only path is through and to our Lord. We are all fallen and need God, and to repent as a Nation.”
Katyal, who served as acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, promptly fired back.
“Dear Criminal Defendant Clark,” Katyal wrote. “I am a Hindu. Are you suggesting I do not belong in this country?”
He suggested Clark might be “better off studying our Founders, the text of our First Amendment and (albeit for other reason), the Criminal Code.”
Katyal’s original post described a “harrowing 6 mile hike at midnight through heavy and slippery mud” to leave the festival in the Nevada desert, where thousands of people were stranded over the weekend after heavy rain.
Clark was indicted along with Trump and 17 others last month in the Fulton County racketeering case. He is charged with violating Georgia’s racketeering act and criminally attempting to commit false statements and writings.
Clark was an assistant attorney general in the environment and natural resources division and served as acting head of the Justice Department’s civil division during the Trump administration.
He was a key player in the former president’s plot to overturn the 2020 election.
After the resignation of former Attorney General William Barr, who left his role after refusing to support Trump’s voter fraud claims, Trump contemplated boosting Clark ― who did support his bogus election claims ― to acting attorney general, according to former Trump administration officials.
Following his August indictment, Clark claimed that “witches, spiritists, mediums, those with spirit animals, and Ukrainian NPCs” were attacking him.
Several prominent figures jumped to Katyal’s defense after Clark’s post, including Constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe, conservative attorney George Conway and gun safety advocate Fred Guttenberg.
See their reactions, and others, below.