The Justice Department is reportedly seeking communications to and from the Republican National Committee’s “election integrity” director in its Jan. 6 investigation, Politico reported Saturday.
In recent weeks, the DOJ has issued subpoenas seeking information in all seven battleground states where the Trump campaign attempted to assemble a slate of fake electors as part of Trump’s efforts to subvert the election results.
At least three witnesses in the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe of the fake electors — two in Arizona and another in Georgia — have received subpoenas requesting communications to and from Joshua Findlay, who currently serves as the RNC’s national director for election integrity, according to Politico.
Findlay reportedly appears in the DOJ’s subpoenas to the Georgia and Arizona witnesses. The three subpoenas request the witnesses share all documents and communications from Oct. 2020 on “[t]o, from, with, or including” a list of people, which includes Findlay.
Prior to serving in the RNC, Findlay worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign, which involved being part of the team responsible for the planning of the 2020 Republican National Convention. Following the convention, he was a lawyer on the Trump campaign’s legal team.
Findlay is not a central focus in the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s investigation (separate from the DOJ’s probe). However, Matt Morgan, the head of the Trump campaign’s legal team, mentioned Findlay during a public hearing last month. The committee aired a video clip of one of its investigators, Casey Lucier, saying that some campaign lawyers “became convinced” that the fake electors plot as part of an effort for Trump to steal a second term was “no longer appropriate.” Lucier noted that on Nov. 18, 2020, Kenneth Cheseboro, one of the attorneys who worked for the Trump campaign, wrote a memo for the fake electors plot — which received pushback from some Trump advisers.
“At that point, I had Josh Findlay email Mr. Chesebro politely to say, ‘This is your task,’” Morgan told the committee. “‘You are responsible for the Electoral College issues moving forward.’ And this was my way of taking that responsibility to zero.”
Additionally, Findlay appeared to be a point person for the fake elector scheme in an email sent to him in Dec. 2020, according to Politico. David Shafer, head of the Georgia GOP who was also an alternate elector, reportedly directed one of his subordinates to reach out to Findlay about the scheme.
The DOJ’s interest in Findlay’s communications comes as the department appears to have ramped up its Jan. 6 probe in recent weeks.
Last week, it was reported that several former Trump administration staffers have cooperated in the department’s Jan. 6 probe, which includes Cassidy Hutchinson, former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Additionally, top advisers to former Vice President Mike Pence — his ex-chief of staff Marc Short and legal counsel Greg Jacob — have reportedly appeared before a grand jury under subpoena in Washington in connection with the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe.
