The House committee investigating the January 6th Capitol attack has subpoenaed fourteen signatories of the fake Electoral College certificates submitted to Congress that claimed Donald Trump won several states in the 2020 election that he actually lost.
The subpoenaed individuals are from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In a statement, the committee explained that Trump and his advisors used the bogus certifications from the “so-called alternate electors…to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6th, 2021.”
CNBC reports:
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who is chairman of the panel, said, “We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme.”
“We encourage them to cooperate with the Select Committee’s investigation to get answers about January 6th for the American people and help ensure nothing like that day ever happens again,” Thompson said.
“The first thing is that we want to look at the fraudulent activity that was contained in the preparation of these fake Electoral College certificates,” 1/6 committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said. “And then we want to look to see to what extent this is part of a comprehensive plan to overthrow the results of the election.”
Bloomberg provides the names of the subpoened:
…from Arizona, Nancy Cottle, chairperson and Loraine Pellegrino, secretary; from Georgia, David Shafer, chairman, and Shawn Still, secretary; from Michigan, Kathy Berden, chairperson, Mayra Rodriguez, secretary; from New Mexico, Jewll Powdrell, chairperson, and Deborah Maestas, secretary; from Nevada, Michael McDonald, chairperson, and James DeGraffenreid, secretary; from Pennsylvania, Bill Bachenberg, chairperson and Lisa Patton, secretary; and from Wisconsin, Andrew Hitt, chairperson, and Kelly Ruh, secretary.
CNN has previously reported that Rudy Giuliani spearheaded the effort to submit the bogus certifications.
“It was Rudy and these misfit characters who started calling the shots,” a former Trump campaign told the outlet. “The campaign was throwing enough sh*t at the wall to see what would stick.”
CNN adds:
The “alternate” slate of electors has become a big focus not only of Select Committee’s investigation but other investigations as well. US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN this week that the Department of Justice is looking into the effort to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing after receiving requests from lawmakers and state officials to investigate.
