your actions? What does that say about your leadership?"[300] Steve Engel reinforced Donoghue's point, saying that Clark would be leading a "graveyard."[301]
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone threatened to resign as well, describing Clark's letter as a "murder-suicide pact."[302] Cipollone warned that the letter would "damage everyone who touches it" and no one should have anything to do with it.[303]
Some of the participants in the meeting argued that Clark was the wrong person for the job of Attorney General. Clark attempted to defend his credentials, arguing that he had been involved in complicated civil and environmental litigation.[304] "That's right. You're an environmental lawyer," Donoghue fired back.[305] "How about you go back to your office, and we'll call you when there's an oil spill."[306]
The meeting lasted approximately 3 hours.[307] Only toward the end of the contentious affair did President Trump decide to reverse his earlier decision to make Clark the Acting Assistant Attorney General. Donoghue recalled President Trump addressing Clark along the following lines:
I appreciate your willingness to do it. I appreciate you being willing to suffer the abuse. But the reality is, you're not going to get anything done. These guys are going to quit. Everyone else is going to resign. It's going to be a disaster. The bureaucracy will eat you alive. And no matter how you want to get things done in the next few weeks, you won't be able to get it done, and it's not going to be worth the breakage.[308]
Clark tried to change President Trump's mind, saying "history is calling, this our opportunity" and "we can get this done."[309] But the President was clearly rattled by the threat of mass defections and reiterated that the change would not happen. President Trump then wondered what would happen to Clark, and if Donoghue was going to fire him. Donoghue explained that only the President had that authority. That was the end of the matter. "And we all got up and walked out of the Oval Office," Donoghue recalled.[310]
But for one DOJ employee, the matter was not entirely settled. During the January 3rd meeting in the Oval Office, President Trump complained bitterly about BJay Pak, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.[311] Barr had tasked Pak with investigating the State Farm Arena video in early December 2020. Like the FBI and Georgia State officials, Pak concluded that nothing nefarious had occurred. President Trump was dissatisfied.[312]
"No wonder nothing's been found in Atlanta, because the U.S. attorney there is a Never Trumper," Donoghue recalled the President saying.[313]
