A former target of the Biden administration’s “lawfare” says he and President Donald Trump have already made profound changes to the federal bureaucracy.
Jeff Clark, the acting administrator for the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), outlined how he thinks the government is becoming more accountable to the American people in a talk at Capitol Hill Friday for the conservative group American Moment. The former Department of Justice (DOJ) official is now tasked with curtailing the very system that branded him a criminal after President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
READ: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Calls For ‘Shadow Government’ In Response To Trump Election Integrity Order
“We have a problem with the civil service and a problem with the bureaucracy in America,” Clark told his audience. “It’s become a fourth branch of government.”
Congress created OIRA to help presidents review agency actions. A Feb. 18 order from Trump requires “all” agencies to submit their “proposed and final significant regulatory actions” to Clark’s office for review. The order said this policy makes the unelected bureaucracy “accountable to the American people” through “Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch.” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought picked Clark to lead OIRA after Trump took office.
Clark said the administration believes so-called “independent agencies” – created to exist outside the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government – are “unconstitutional” and he is making them “independent no longer.” One of them is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where Vought has also made Clark a senior adviser.
The acting OIRA administrator celebrated the CFPB moving to vacate a Biden-era legal settlement Wednesday made against a Chicago financial firm accused of racist “redlining” for advising the public about crime rates in certain neighborhoods. The agency claimed the company illegally discriminated against minorities and forced the small firm to pay $100,000 through the settlement after putting it through the cost of legal fees defending itself, Clark said.
“It was … based purely on statistics and on the fact that the CFPB didn’t like the speech of the owner of that company who had an AM radio show,” Clark said.
The CFPB, like other agencies, “was really on a tear, going after Americans on various levels” until President Trump’s return, Clark said.
Biden’s DOJ and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Clark, Trump and others with illegally interfering with the 2020 election through their investigations of alleged voter fraud. Both cases centered around a legal opinion letter Clark drafted while working in Trump’s DOJ suggesting that Georgia should examine whether its elections were carried out properly.
READ: Trump Warns Iran: “Very Bad Things” Will Happen Without Nuclear Deal
The DOJ later dropped its case against Clark, but he still faces charges in Georgia and is fighting for his law license after a Washington, D.C. board recommended his disbarment. Willis was disqualified from the Georgia case in December over a romantic relationship with one of her top prosecutors and judges dismissed several charges against Trump and others, leaving the case’s fate in question.
The FBI made headlines in June 2022 by raiding Clark’s home while he was in his undergarments and seizing his electronic devices as part of its election probe. Vought said the spectacle showed “weaponization of government” — before picking Clark for his White House role after Trump took office for a second time.
“Many people thought I was completely dead as a result of being put through the wringer by that,” Clark told his audience. He said he now runs “the most important agency of the government you’ve probably never heard of.”
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Connect with us: Follow the Tampa Free Press on Facebook and Twitter for breaking news and updates.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
