Golden State Today

Jeffrey Clark, a former Assistant Attorney General, has challenged Vice President Kamala Harris's legal credentials, asserting that she has never personally argued an appeal. 

Clark personally oversaw around 1,400 lawyers while working in the Attorney General’s Office. 

“Yesterday, I had promised my followers to run a search to see if Kamala Harris had ever argued any appeals—ever. The short answer is ‘no, never,’” Clark said on X. 

Clark said he conducted a thorough investigation using Westlaw, a comprehensive legal research database. 

“I ran a Boolean search that finds the universe of all cases where Kamala Harris appears and narrows it down to those where ‘argues’ is mentioned near her name,” he said. “The search returns only five cases, and in each of those, one of her subordinates argued, not her.”

He highlighted the implications of his findings. 

“Practices can vary, but in general, prosecutors—especially in state systems—often argue their own appeals,” he said. “Not Kamala. She never even attempted the feat, which requires the lawyer presenting or defending the appeal to both know the law, think on their feet in responding to questions from a panel of three or more judges, and know the factual record.”

Clark expressed disappointment regarding Harris’s qualifications.

“I find it an insult that she sat in judgment on the second Senate Judiciary Committee vote on my nomination to join the leadership of the Justice Department,” he said. “Based on my research thus far, she is not a technically accomplished lawyer.”

Harris voted against Clark’s own appointment in 2018. 

“I note that I find it an insult that she sat in judgment on the second Senate Judiciary Committee vote on my nomination to join the leadership of the Justice Department in early 2018,” he said.

He contrasted his own experience with Harris's. 

“Even during my high-level service in the U.S. Justice Department, I continued to argue some cases myself... I argued more cases personally than any of the other 5 to 6 Assistant Attorneys General running litigating divisions,” he said.  

Clark also drew parallels between Harris and President Biden, remarking on their academic records and questioning their qualifications as attorneys as well as those overseeing legal appointments. 

“Kamala also takes after her running mate, Joe Biden, who did poorly in law school and was even caught plagiarizing during his studies. (And remember that Kamala failed the bar exam once.),” Clark said. “Yet, Biden got to sit in judgment on the Senate Judiciary of both the great Yale Law Professor, constitutional and antitrust scholar, and Kirkland & Ellis partner Robert Bork—and in judgment of the great and long-service Justice Clarence Thomas— during their respective confirmation hearings.”

He remarked on the tone Harris and Biden took when they oversaw appointments of much more respected attorneys. 

“And yet both Biden and Harris, when they were Senators, acted like royal legal scholars when they were questioning such nominees as Bork, Thomas, and Kavanaugh,” Clark said. “It disgusted me at the time and still does. (I watched Bork's nomination when I was in college. I watched Clarence Thomas's the year before I started law school. And I watched Brett Kavanaugh's during a period when I was preparing for an oral argument of my own before the Fifth Circuit, when I was in private practice.).” 

Clark said Harris’s lack of legal prowess is evident. 

“Now, one of our two major parties has nominated Kamala to be President,” he said. “She wasn't qualified to sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, let alone be Commander in Chief.”

Clark challenged the Harris campaign to provide evidence of her legal prowess. 

“I am still trying to actually lay my hands on a transcript where she first-chaired a trial as a California prosecutor,” he said. “Her campaign could easily assist me... by locating such a transcript, uploading it, and linking to it. That claim is starting to ring very hollow. I hope that America wakes up before it is too late.” 

Clark is Senior Fellow and Director of Litigation at The Center for Renewing America.          

He has argued in all 13 federal circuit courts and previously served as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. 

An adjunct law professor and member of several legal organizations, Clark holds degrees from Harvard, the University of Delaware, and Georgetown Law. 

Clark has been described as unwavering in his belief that fraud occurred in the 2020 election after which he drafted a letter alleging election irregularities, which he wanted sent to Georgia officials.

Since leaving government service at the end of Trump’s presidency in 2021 he has been targeted by leftist prosecutors. 

In the summer of 2022, federal agents searched Clark's Virginia home, during which video surfaced of him in handcuffs, without pants on, in his driveway.

Clark, along with Donald Trump and 17 others, has been charged in racketeering case in Georgia where they are accused of participating in a scheme to overturn the 2020 election results. 

Earlier this year Clark’s lawyer argued that he acted within his official duties when he expressed concerns about the 2020 election in Georgia.