DOJ Subpoenas Local Officials in States Where Trump Tried To Overturn 2020 Election

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoenaed local election officials in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, four key swing states at the center of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election results. These subpoenas were issued by Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the DOJ’s investigation into classified documents at Trump’s Florida home and the events leading up to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

The first known requests were sent to election officials in Democratic-leaning cities that were the targets of Trump and his allies; this includes Maricopa County, Arizona (home to Phoenix); Wayne County, Michigan (home to Detroit); Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (home to Pittsburgh) and Milwaukee and Dane counties, Wisconsin (home to Milwaukee and Madison, respectively). Two of the subpoenas obtained by the Associated Press requested “any and all communications in any form” between June 1, 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021 “to, from, or involving” Trump, the Trump campaign, lawyers and a host of former officials. These subpoenas suggest that Smith, selected by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last month, is extending his investigation’s scope to include Trump’s post-November 2020 attempts to stop vote counting in certain Democratic cities and to send “alternate” slates of electors from these states.