Justin Reilly "JC" Clark (born June 3, 1975) is an American attorney, former government official, and former presidential campaign official forDonald Trump.[2] He served asDirector of Public Liaison andDirector of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House under the Trump administration.[3][4] Prior to his government service, Clark was apartner at the law firm of Davis, Clark & Bonafonte LLC.[5]
Clark was a co-founder of the Connecticut-based law firm Davis, Clark & Bonafonte LLC, where his practice focused on litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts. He also provided general counsel services to clients, advised them on compliance matters, and represented them before various regulatory bodies. As a part of that practice he served various state and national campaigns and committees. He managedTom Foley's unsuccessfulgubernatorial campaigns in 2010 and2014.[5] He was also political director forLinda McMahon's unsuccessful2012 United States Senate campaign.[8] In both efforts Clark applied a data driven approach with a qualitative understanding of the electorate to lead his candidates to surprise wins at their respective state party conventions. In 2015, he worked onMatt Bevin's successfulgubernatorial campaign in Kentucky where, among other things, he successfully developed and executed the plan to preserve an 83-vote margin in a recanvass of votes in the May primary.[9][10]
Clark was hired by Donald Trump's presidential campaign in March 2016 as the campaign's Connecticut state director, and later served as an advisor to the campaign during theIndiana Republican primary in May 2016.[12] In June 2016, he was named Deputy National Political Director of the campaign and served in that capacity through the end of the election.[11] In that role he developed and implemented a 50-state political and field strategy and during the2016 Republican National Convention, served as one of the chiefwhips for the campaign on the rules committee and on the floor.[13] Throughout the general election Clark condensed and applied analytics and polling data to help guide the team that directed spending and candidate travel. He later headed the campaign's recount efforts in Michigan and served as the chief whip for the campaign in the electoral college.[14][15][16] After the election, Clark served on thePresidential transition team.[13]
Clark became the President'sDirector of Intergovernmental Affairs on January 20, 2017.[13] He was appointed theDirector of Public Liaison in March 2018.[3] In that role, Clark oversaw the political aspects of the nomination ofBrett Kavanaugh to theU.S. Supreme Court.[17] In December 2018, Clark and White House political directorBill Stepien were named Senior Political Advisors to the President's re-election campaign focusing on delegate and party organization.[16] Clark is also Senior Counsel to the President's re-election campaign focused on compliance and election day operations.[18] In 2019, Clark was surreptitiously recorded telling Wisconsin Republicans that "traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places" and that 2020 would be the time to "start playing offense a little bit" to protect their voters.[19] In response to the recording, Clark said "Republicans historically have been falsely accused of voter suppression." In 2020, Clark was appointed as a member of thePresident's Commission on White House Fellowships.[20] Clark was named Deputy Campaign Manager of the President's re-election campaign in July 2020.
In 2021, Clark and Jesse R. Binnall filed Donald Trump's appeal to the Washington, D.C. circuit court in a failed effort to thwart the release of documents relating to the2021 United States Capitol attack.[21] According to a court filing, on June 29, 2022, Clark was interviewed by the FBI related to the criminal contempt case ofSteve Bannon, who was convicted of contempt of congress for defying a subpoena from theJan. 6 select committee.[22]
^Circuit Judge Millett."Trumpv. Thompson, et al."[dead link]United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 9 Dec. 2021. Retrieved 23 Jan 2022.
