INVESTIGATION INTENSIFIES: Jack Smith issues subpoenas to key election officials in Arizona, Wisconsin, & Michigan
Justice moves slowly, but Jack Smith seems to be speeding things up as he takes control of the 2020 election interference case.
He has now sent subpoenas to election officials in three states, asking them to share communications that could give more information on how Donald Trump and his representatives tried to alter the outcome, and what, if any, crimes were committed in the process.
Smith’s appointment as special counsel has inspired cautious excitement, as the pro-democracy factions of the nation hold out hope that he’ll make decisive moves on election interference coming from the highest levels of government.
This series of subpoenas is one of the most public moves he’s made since his appointment.
Election officials in three counties — Dane County, Wisconsin; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Wayne County, Michigan — reported receiving subpoenas, which request copies of certain communications between June 1st, 2020, and Trump’s exit from the White House on January 20, 2021.
The communications requested include any that come from Trump-connected attorneys, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and others who may not have officially worked for him but worked on election-denial cases, like Sidney Powell; or from his campaign manager, Bill Stepien; or from other campaign officials and advisors.
Via The Washington Post:
“The subpoena asks for communication with Trump and his campaign, including several key allies…[Milwaukee Clerk George Christenson] speculated that federal investigators are hunting for new details about the Trump campaign’s efforts to convene illegitimate electors in key battleground states that Joe Biden narrowly won.”
Trump and those around him are accused of plotting to send votes cast by fake slates of electors, in order to sow confusion in the January 6th certification of electoral votes and to delay that certification long enough to convince states to alter their vote outcomes and affirm Trump as the (false) winner.
The January 6th Committee made a thorough investigation into this plot and revealed details of it to the public, as can be seen in the clip they released below.
Under our Constitution, when we cast our votes for President, we're actually voting to send electors pledged to our preferred candidate to the Electoral College.
As an attempt to stay in power, Trump’s campaign coordinated a plot to send fake electors not chosen by the voters. pic.twitter.com/Dw3skIsI04
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) August 27, 2022
People reported earlier this year that, in fact, even though the fake electors’ votes were never accepted, were not read out in Congress, and were actually refused by Mike Pence’s aide, as Representative Paul Gosar attempted to deliver them to him, they were still forwarded on to the National Archives
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
