Unfortunately, the clip wouldn't come out - I tried the rag method repeatedly, and bought a set of dentist-like picks at the hardware store, but I still couldn't dig it out. There's not a lot of room to maneuver or see what you are doing. So I ended up drilling off the handle, which was very easy to do (see photos). I drilled 5-6 holes, and was able to wiggle the handle portion off. You can see in the photo that the clip was lodged at a funky angle, and was in backwards. Thanks for the advice everyone.
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