Where Things Stand: Smith Zooms In On Trump Circle’s 2020 Lawsuits In Arizona

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July 5, 2023 6:22 p.m.

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Special Counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed the Arizona secretary of state’s office as recently as May for information related to the unsuccessful lawsuits brought by the Trump campaign and the Arizona Republican Party about supposed errors in the 2020 election. As you’ll recall, Arizona was a hotbed of conspiracy theories tied to the effort to overturn the election after President Biden flipped the longtime Republican stronghold state, leading to Trumpworld outrage, a phony and expensive state election “audit” and the lawsuits.

The previously unreported subpoenas were revealed in a new report by the Arizona Republic Wednesday, which found that Smith’s office also spoke with Republican state lawmakers this spring about events post-2020 election.

Back then, after Fox News called Arizona for Biden and sent MAGAland into hysterics, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit alleging there were a bunch of voters who had their ballots thrown out wrongfully in the state, but the suit was dismissed by Maricopa County Superior Court judge because the ballots the Trump campaign called into question were not enough to change the results of the election.

Around the same time, then-Chair of the Arizona Republican Party Kelli Ward sued over supposed errors in the 2020 election count, arguing that the election workers in Maricopa County weren’t qualified to verify mail-in voting signatures, among other things. That suit was dismissed and appeals to the state Supreme Court and then the U.S. Supreme Court were not successful.

Smith is reportedly interested in documents “related to discovery, proposed exhibits and communications with opposing attorneys,” in the Republic’s words. An outside counsel for the secretary of state’s office reportedly complied with the request from Smith. As the Republic also notes, it’s unclear if Smith’s office has contacted former Republican Gov. Dough Ducey with similar requests. It was Ducey who reportedly silenced his phone when Donald Trump tried to call him while he was certifying the results in the state in 2020.

This is just one of several signs in recent weeks that the Jan. 6 layer of Smith’s investigation is very much still active.