NEW SUBPOENAS! The Justice Department responds to Jan 6th hearings
As each new televised hearing from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection reveals more evidence of a widespread criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the lack of reaction by the Justice Department in the form of criminal indictments against the people who have been exposed to be involved in the seditious activity has perplexed and upset the Twitter cognoscenti who have been following every twist and turn of the hearings.
Now, it appears as if the seemingly dormant Department of Justice has finally decided to spring into action with the issuing of subpoenas to at least two people involved in Donald Trump’s scheme to use phony slates of electors from the swing states he lost to steal away the lawful victory of Joe Biden in the race.
According to The Washington Post, FBI agents “conducted court authorized law enforcement activity Wednesday morning at two locations.”
“One was the home of Brad Carver, a Georgia lawyer who allegedly signed a document claiming to be a Trump elector. The other was the Virginia home of Thomas Lane, who worked on the Trump campaign’s efforts in Arizona and New Mexico. The FBI officials did not identify the people associated with those addresses, but public records list each of the locations as the home addresses of the men.”
An anonymous source at the DOJ also told The Washington Post that some of the people who falsely claimed to be Trump electors in Michigan also were served with subpoenas today.
The Justice Department action now seems to be targeting Trump electors who agreed to participate in the illegal scheme to replace the electors committed to voting for Joe Biden with their own votes that ignored the legitimate results of the elections in their states. Around 15 people who were scheduled to become Trump electors and who declined to be involved in the scheme have already spoken to federal prosecutors about what they know, The Post indicates.
One Trump elector in Georgia described what the FBI was seeking in their earlier subpoenas:
“Those subpoenas sought all documents since Oct. 1, 2020, related to the electoral college vote, as well as any election-related communications with roughly a dozen people in Trump’s inner circle, including Rudy Giuliani, Bernard Kerik, Boris Epshteyn, Jenna Ellis and John Eastman. One would-be Trump elector in Georgia, Patrick Gartland, had been appointed to the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration and believed that post meant serving as an elector would have created a conflict of interest for him. Still, two FBI agents recentlycame to his home with a subpoena and asked whether he had any contact with Trump advisersaround the time of the November election. ‘They wanted to know if I had talked to Giuliani,’ Gartland said.”
With the FBI and the DOJ finally pursuing leads in the investigation into the allegations of Trump’s seditious conspiracy, Twitter denizens are regaining hope that the twice-impeached former president and his accomplices may finally be held accountable for their treasonous actions.
This should get under the hood of Trump’s coup-in-progress.
Most, if not all, of these operatives have continued to aggressively undermine elections in their states.
It’s quite a network. @gal_suburban @j2dumfounded @DempseyTwo @visionsurreal @arapaho415 @clearing_fog
— Scotch Scoville. OHIO DINER ☕️ (@scovilleunits) June 22, 2022
This is going to make Watergate look like patty cake. https://t.co/1YYGWHGWED
— Grant Stern is boosted! (@grantstern) June 22, 2022
When is Donald going to be charged with wire fraud for illegally raising 250 million dollars from his donors for his legal fight pushing fraudulent ballots, and then pocketing the money?
— Barbara Malmet (@B52Malmet) June 22, 2022
Would love for someone to look at all of our Arizona fake electors!!! Not to mention Gosar and Biggs!!!
— FLMIAz8675309 (@FLMIAz8675309) June 22, 2022
https://twitter.com/tribble111/status/1539685951672385537?s=20
This is a start. We need more. #sedition #Jan6 #NeverForget
@TheJusticeDept Department expands Jan. 6 probe with fresh subpoenas – The Washington Post https://t.co/RY1I2i9o2m
— 2011teacher (@2011teacher) June 22, 2022
While there still seems to be skepticism about the Justice Department’s efforts to pursue criminal charges against January 6th conspirators, most of these seem to come from the fact that Attorney General Merrick Garland and his federal prosecutors have yet to move to file criminal charges from the referrals they received from the House Jan. 6th committee after former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other Trump cronies refused to appear in front of the committee despite receiving valid subpoenas.
How Garland expects the targets of the DOJ’s own subpoenas to comply if he’s not willing to enforce the House Committee’s subpoenas is a question that many people are now pondering.
Still, others recommend patience, reasoning that indictments have yet to be filed against these people seeking to avoid testifying because they have bigger charges to file that require more time to develop an airtight prosecution.
Whatever the delay, it’s still good news that Justice Department is finally starting to take action. Call us when they finally decided to go after the big fish.
Original reporting by Spencer S. Hsu, Josh Dawsey, and Devlin Barrett at The Washington Post.
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