Justice Dept. expands Jan. 6 probe with fresh subpoenas [View all]
Last edited Wed Jun 22, 2022, 07:07 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
The Justice Department’s investigation of the Jan. 6 attack ratcheted up Wednesday as federal agents dropped subpoenas on people in at least two states, in what appeared to be a widening probe of how political activists supporting President Donald Trump tried to use invalid electors to thwart Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. FBI officials confirmed to The Washington Post that agents conducted court authorized law enforcement activity Wednesday morning at two locations — one the address of Brad Carver, a Georgia lawyer who allegedly signed a document claiming to be a Trump elector, and another 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. The precise nature of the information being sought by the Justice Department wasn’t immediately clear; however, Arizona and Georgia officials testified Tuesday to a House panel probing the Jan. 6 attacks about attempts by Trump and his inner circle of advisers to try to reverse Biden’s electoral college victories in those states.
Officials have previously said that the Justice Department and FBI were examining the issue of false electors, who Trump and others hoped might be approved by state legislators in a last-ditch bid to keep Trump in the White House. Until now, however, those investigative efforts seemed to primarily involve talking to people in Republican circles who knew of the scheme and objected; the subpoenas issued Wednesday suggest the Justice Department is now moving to question at least some of those who allegedly agreed to pursue the effort.
FBI agents delivered a subpoena to Lane Wednesday morning at his home in Virginia, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. After leaving the Trump campaign, Lane has worked for the Republican National Committee’s election efforts in Virginia, this person said. Public records list an address for Lane in south Arlington, and an FBI spokeswoman confirmed agents conducted “court-authorized law enforcement activity” at that address this morning. Phone messages left for Lane were not immediately returned. Carver, the Georgia lawyer, also did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/22/jan6-fbi-electors-subpoenas/
NYT just had a breaking mentioning a 3rd person and these subpoenas are apparently from a grand jury -
By Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman
June 22, 2022, 6:31 p.m. ET
The Justice Department stepped up its criminal investigation of a plan by Donald J. Trump and his allies to create so-called fake slates of electors in a bid to keep Mr. Trump in power during the 2020 election, as federal agents delivered grand jury subpoenas on Wednesday to at least three people connected to the plan. One of those who received a subpoena, according to two people familiar with the matter, was Brad Carver, a lawyer and official of the Georgia Republican Party who claimed to be one of Mr. Trump’s electors in the state, which was won by Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Another subpoena recipient was Thomas Lane, an official who worked on behalf of Mr. Trump’s campaign in Arizona and New Mexico, the people said. A third person, Sean Flynn, a Trump campaign aide in Michigan, also got a subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter. The issuance of new subpoenas was first reported by The Washington Post. None of the three men could be reached for comment about the subpoenas. The fake elector plan is the focus of one of two known prongs of the Justice Department’s broad grand jury investigation of Mr. Trump’s multiple and interlocking attempts to subvert the election.
The other has focused on a wide cast of political organizers, White House aides and members of Congress connected in various ways to Mr. Trump’s incendiary speech near the White House that directly preceded the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. This latest round of activity in the Justice Department’s inquiry came amid the House select committee’s high-profile hearings into Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse the outcome of the election. It also comes less than a month after an earlier round of grand jury subpoenas that revealed prosecutors have been seeking information on the role that a group of pro-Trump lawyers played in the fake elector effort.
Those lawyers included Rudolph W. Giuliani, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, James Troupis and Justin Clark. The subpoenas, issued by a grand jury sitting in Washington, have also sought records and information about other pro-Trump figures like Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and a longtime ally of Mr. Giuliani. Many of the lawyers named in the subpoenas were also mentioned on Tuesday at the House select committee’s public hearing exploring Mr. Trump’s wide-ranging pressure campaign to persuade state officials to help him stay in office.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/us/politics/justice-dept-jan-6-subpoenas.html
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