DOJ subpoenas state officials for Trump calls
Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed local officials in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states that were central to former President Donald Trump’s failed plan to stay in power following the 2020 election — for any and all communications with Trump, his campaign and a long list of aides and allies.
The requests for records arrived in Dane County, Wis.; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and Wayne County, Mich., late last week, and in Milwaukee on Monday, officials said. They are among the first known subpoenas issued by Smith, who was named last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the Jan. 6 Capitol attack case as well as the criminal probe of Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida home.
The subpoenas, at least three of which are dated Nov. 22, show that Smith is extending the Justice Department’s examination of the circumstances leading up to the Capitol attack to include local election officials and their potential interactions with the former president and his representatives. The virtually identical requests to Arizona and Wisconsin name Trump individually, in addition to employees, agents and attorneys for his campaign. Details of the Michigan subpoena, confirmed by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, were not immediately available.
“I’m happy to participate in this process,” said George Christenson, the Milwaukee clerk.
Christenson said he is not aware of any communications with his office that have not already been made public. But he 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.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
The requested communications include those with Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, and other advisers, such as Boris Epshteyn. Attorneys identified include Trump campaign lawyers, such as Justin Clark and Matthew Morgan, as well as those serving in other capacities, such as John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Cleta Mitchell.
Trump and key allies sought to avert his narrow loss in six battleground states through a lengthy pressure campaign. In Maricopa County, the pressure focused heavily on urging the Gop-controlled governing board to not certify the results.
Then-supervisor Steve Chucri, a Republican, has said he met with Giuliani at the state Capitol in mid-to-late November 2020. In December, Giuliani tried to reach Republican supervisors Bill Gates, Jack Sellers and Clint Hickman by phone. Days later, Trump himself twice tried to speak to Hickman.
The calls came on Dec. 31, 2020, and again on Jan. 3, 2021, the same day news broke of Trump’s conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump had urged the Georgia election director to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss there. Hickman let both calls go to voice mail.
After the county board ultimately certified the election results, Trump and his allies sought to discredit them by favoring what would become a monthslong inspection of ballots and voting equipment ordered by the Gop-led state Senate. That haphazard review in 2021 affirmed Trump’s loss.