The Trump campaign coordinated efforts to persuade Republican state lawmakers to send fake slates of electors to Congress on Jan. 6, the the Jan. 6 Committee said on Tuesday.
The statement came in the form of a fresh wave of subpoenas issued to several Trump campaign officials and three of the most outspoken state-level elected Republicans, part of an effort to investigation plans to mess with the certification of the 2020 election.
The panel issued subpoenas to two Trump campaign officials: Director of Election Day Operations Michael A. Roman and to Gary Brown, deputy director of the same.
Roman was part of what the panel described as a “coordinated strategy” from the Trump campaign to contact state-level Republican lawmakers. The Trump campaign, the panel said, “urge[d] them to ‘reclaim’ their authority by sending an alternate slate of electors that would support former President Trump.”
“It appears that you helped direct the Trump campaign staffers participating in this effort,” the subpoena reads.
In a statement, panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said the committee wanted information about “efforts to send false slates of electors to Washington and change the outcome of the 2020 election.”
“We’re seeking records and testimony from former campaign officials and other individuals in various states who we believe have relevant information about the planning and implementation of those plans,” he added.
The subpoenas also went out to Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano (R), who spoke with Trump before Jan. 6 and attended the rally that day, and to Kelli Ward, a former Arizona state senator and chair of the state’s Republican party.
Mastriano reportedly helped arrange for an alternate slate of electors from Pennsylvania to go to D.C. on Jan. 6. He continued to promote outlandish claims of fraud by taking part in an attempt to stage an audit in Pennsylvania to uncover the “truth” of the 2020 election.
Ward herself acted as a fake elector, and, per the committee, spoke with Trump during the transition period before Jan. 6. House investigators also want to speak with Mark Finchem, an Arizona state representative and current candidate for Arizona secretary of state, who was in D.C. on Jan. 6.
Finchem repeatedly alleged that Trump was the true winner of Arizona’s votes — a claim he repeated without evidence up until, and through, the Capitol insurrection. While in D.C., Finchem said that Pence should postpone the certification of electors.
Finchem, now running for Arizona secretary of state with a Trump endorsement, introduced a bill last week to “decertify” the election results.
The panel also issued a subpoena to Laura Cox, the Michigan GOP chair in 2020. The panel identified her as a “witness” to Rudy Giuliani telling Michigan state lawmakers that certifying Biden’s win would be a “criminal act.”
