The Washington Post and New York Times still have their reporting behind a pay wall this morning, but here is a summary from Steve Benen. New subpoenas signal intensifying Justice Dept. probe into Jan. 6:
The number of entities investigating Team Trump’s fake elector scheme has grown over time. The list includes the National Archives, state attorneys general [but NOT here in Arizona], as well as the Jan. 6 committee.
But looming overhead is the Justice Department’s investigation, which has unfolded relatively quietly over the course of several months, but which is clearly the most serious probe, with the potential of being highly consequential for those involved.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco confirmed months ago that the Justice Department is “looking at” the matter, as part of an “ongoing” investigation. According to a New York Times report from last month, federal investigators have “stepped up” their criminal probe of the fake electors’ gambit. The Washington Post reported earlier this month, meanwhile, that the Justice Department “has sent [grand jury] subpoenas and sought interviews with some of the 15 people around the country who were slated to be Trump electors but were replaced on the day of the electoral college vote.”
It was against this backdrop that The Post advanced the story further, reporting that federal agents yesterday “dropped subpoenas on people in multiple locations,” widening the scrutiny of the plot.
Agents conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity Wednesday morning at different locations, FBI officials confirmed to The Washington Post. 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.
According to The Post’s reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, who served as a Trump elector in that state, also received a subpoena.
Around the same time, The New York Times added that Shawn Flynn, a Trump campaign aide in Michigan, also received a federal subpoena from the Justice Department, while the CBS affiliate in Las Vegas reported that FBI agents served a search warrant on Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, also as part of the fake elector scheme.
Has Arizona Republican Party Chair “Chemtrails” Kelli Ward been served with a grand jury subpoena yet, or is she next on the FBI’s list? Arizona Republicans were the most blatant about it, posting a video of their crime oline.
UPDATE:
CONFIRMED: Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward and her husband Michael — who were among the false pro-Trump electors — have received grand jury subpoenas, according to a source familiar with the matter.https://t.co/nxKsd2fl6N
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 23, 2022
The Wards weren't just part of the false-elector effort, though. They also signed onto a Dec. 2020 lawsuit — led by Rep. Louie Gohmert — against then-VP Mike Pence in an effort to get a ruling freeing Pence to choose the winner of the election.https://t.co/nxKsd2fl6N
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 23, 2022
The same report from KLAS in Nevada, which also has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that James DeGraffenreid, another top official in the state GOP, was confronted with a federal search warrant yesterday. DeGraffenreid was one of the Republicans who signed his name to the forged election materials.
Here are the two groups of fake GQP electors in Arizona who need to be seved with a grand jury subpoena, or indicted for impersonating presidential electors and signing forged documents. Fake Arizona Republican Electors Potentially Face Federal Charges And Prison Time.
To be sure, it’s likely that these names are not widely familiar to a national audience. But let’s not miss the forest for the trees: For months, more than a few political observers have wondered aloud whether the Justice Department is fully engaged in investigating alleged crimes surrounding the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
But when federal law enforcement agents conduct this much “court-authorized law enforcement activity,” all on the same day, as part of the same investigation, it’s evidence of an intensifying investigation.
Given what we’re learning about those who were responsible for concocting the fake electors scheme, this isn’t encouraging news for them.
Ths is a developing story, so stay tuned for later updates.
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Reminder: “Rep. Jake Hoffman Letter To VP Mike Pence Shows Fake Electors Scheme Being Put In Motion (Updated)”, https://blogforarizona.net/rep-jake-hoffman-letter-to-vp-mike-pence-shows-fake-electors-scheme-being-put-in-motion-updated/
State Rep. Jake Hoffman (and fake GQP elector) sent VP Mike Pence a letter on January 5 asking him to “delay the certification of election results and seek clarification from the Arizona Legislature regarding which slate of electors are proper and accurate.”
NEW: It turns out that Hoffman was not actin alone. American Oversight reports in a tweet, https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1540036897032085504?cxt=HHwWgIC9yb_Zp98qAAAA
We obtained a December 31, 2020 letter signed by Kelly Townsend, who had just been elected to the Arizona Senate, addressed to then-Vice President Pence asking that he “not accept” Arizona’s valid electors during the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional certification of the election results.
(copy of letter atatched in Tweet)
American Oversight in the thread to this Tweet adds:
It’s unclear whether Pence received the letter, but it appears to be similar to a letter sent by state Rep. Jake Hoffman, who also asked the vice president to not accept the state’s electoral votes, as reported by the Arizona Republic.
Townsend’s letter is dated Dec. 31, 2020. That same day, she shared it with investor Bradley Rotter and requested feedback. The letter asked Pence to delay certifying the Biden electors until fraud allegations could be investigated.
Rotter responded, copying conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi and someone named Phil Cannon: “Please meet Corsi Undergrounder Phil Cannon who can get your letter to Keith Kellogg who is the Natl Security Advisor to the VP.”
Townsend’s letter to Pence also references the forged electoral certificates — which we also obtained — submitted on Dec. 14, 2020, by Trump supporters in Arizona and other states seeking to overturn Biden’s victory.
On Jan. 5, 2021, Townsend introduced a Senate resolution to appoint this slate of alternate electors, which included Rep. Hoffman and Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward.
The Arizona Republic reports, “Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward subpoenaed by DOJ in fake elector scheme”, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2022/06/23/arizona-gop-chair-kelli-ward-subpoenaed-fake-elector-scheme/7719149001/
Kelli Ward, the head of the Arizona Republican Party, and her husband, Michael, received grand jury subpoenas from the Department of Justice regarding their involvement in a scheme to send fake electors to Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
The subpoena for the Wards first was reported by the website Politico, which cited an unnamed source it said was familiar with the matter.
Alexander Kolodin, an attorney for the Wards, said to The Republic that “this is an investigation based on allegations that our clients engaged in core First Amendment-protected activity, namely petitioning Congress for a redress of grievances.”
Kolodin clarified that the investigation to which he was referring was the Department of Justice investigation.
Kolodin represented the Wards in another subpoena matter.
The House Select Committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had subpoenaed the Wards’ phone records. The Wards filed a lawsuit against the committee in federal court in Phoenix fighting the disclosure of those records. That lawsuit was still pending, with the committee asked to reply by early July.
Kelli Ward also was subpoenaed for testimony and documents by the House Select Committee in February.
One of the other people who falsely called himself an elector, Tyler Bowyer, the head of Turning Point Action, a political action committee based in Phoenix, refused to say Thursday when reached by phone whether he received a subpoena. He deflected comment to his spokesperson, who did not return a message.
The Republic failed in attempts to reach the other eight people who signed the document falsely calling themselves electors.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that subpoenas were also served on Nancy Cottle and Loraine Pellegrino, who signed the false documents as chair and secretary, respectively. The Post said the information came from people familiar with the matter.
Both women also had been the subjects of subpoenas by the House Select Committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
[B]esides the grand jury that is investigating possible criminal charges, the meeting has drawn the interest of the Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot. The committee has subpoenaed three of the 11 Republicans who signed the document, including Kelli Ward.
The falsely declared Arizona electors have not explained what led them to the hold the meeting or whose advice they followed on procedures. One elector, now a state lawmaker, Rep. Jake Hoffman, repeatedly refused to answer a Republic reporter’s question about how he knew where to go for the meeting.
[A]mong the notable fake alternate Republican electors from Arizona, besides Hoffman, were Jim Lamon, currently a U.S. Senate candidate, and Anthony Kern, a former state lawmaker running for a state Senate seat.
[At] the [AZ GQP] meeting, a man in a Trump jacket with the name Lane on it circulated pieces of paper to the electors. The man is not identified in the video but appears to be Thomas Lane, who was the head of election day operations for Trump in Arizona.
Politico confirms Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward and her husband Michael — who were among the false pro-Trump electors — have received grand jury subpoenas, according to a source familiar with the matter. Post updated.
UPDATE: Politico reports, “DOJ searches home of ex-official who aided alleged pro-Trump ‘coup’”, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/23/law-enforcement-trump-official-coup-00041767
Law enforcement officials searched the Virginia home of former top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, according to his employer and former Trump administration colleague.
Russ Vought, who served as former President Donald Trump’s White House budget director and now works with Clark at the Center for Renewing America, tweeted that on Wednesday “more than a dozen DOJ law enforcement officials searched Jeff Clark’s house in a pre dawn raid, put him in the streets in his pjs, and took his electronic devices.”
[Tthe U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington is leading investigations related to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, although the spokesperson declined to link the activity to any individual or probe.]
The search appears to be a dramatic escalation of DOJ’s investigations of Trump allies and associates. For months, the department has been scrutinizing people connected to the so-called alternate electors scheme — where Republicans in states that Joe Biden won in 2020 sent slates of pro-Trump electors to Washington. A number of Republicans around the country signed on as so-called alternate electors.
In late 2020, Clark urged the then-acting attorney general Jeff Rosen to send a letter to top Georgia officials calling for a special session of the legislature. The letter claimed that the department had found evidence of voter fraud that could have changed the outcome of the presidential race in several states — which wasn’t true — and also implied that Georgia’s legislature could hold a special session overriding the declared outcome of its presidential ballot to send pro-Trump electors to Washington.
A key question regarding the Clark search is whether it happened because of his connection to the alternate electors scheme, or because of other actions that are not currently known to be under investigation by the Justice Department. Regardless, it’s rare for former top administration officials, particularly from DOJ, to face law enforcement scrutiny.
The activity came just before Congress’ Jan. 6 select committee was set to begin a public hearing today expected to scrutinize Clark and other allies of the former president.
ABC News first reported that federal agents searched Clark’s home in Lorton, Va., on Wednesday morning.
Today’s hearing was both heartening and frightening.
T4ump was getting his info from the internet, unvetted. Holy crap.
And hey, lookey here, some familiar names….
These freaks asked for pardons
@RepAndyBiggsAZ
@RepMTG
@RepMoBrooks
@RepMattGaetz
@replouiegohmert
@RepGosar
@Jim_Jordan
@RepScottPerry
Pardons for what I wonder?
Excellent point made somewhere I can’t recall, that all the people who said there was a coup by T4ump are testifying under oath.
And all the people who say there was no coup by T4ump but that there was election fraud refuse to testify under oath.