“The four individuals we’ve subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes,” Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the committee, said in a statement Tuesday.
The subpoenas mark a significant escalation in the sweeping probe as the committee is now seeking to compel cooperation from those at the heart of Trump’s push to overturn the election predicated on lie that it was stolen. The panel has an entire investigative team dedicated to examining efforts by Trump and his allies to pressure Department of Justice officials, as well as those at the state level, to overturn the results of the election.
After the 2020 presidential election and up until the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Giuliani was integral to the unsuccessful legal apparatus Trump and his allies created to try and overturn election results by alleging false claims of election fraud. Giuliani traveled the country and worked behind the scenes to pressure state lawmakers to overturn election results.
Giuliani and Powell both have been subject to sanctions and lawsuits over their efforts for Trump to claim election fraud in court by filing lawsuits in key states after the 2020 vote. Legal authorities have said that effort was an intentional disinformation campaign, meant to prime Trump supporters to lose faith in the electoral results.
After the election, Giuliani was in high-level meetings with Trump advisers.
In its letters to Giuliani and Powell, the committee references witness testimony and public reporting to state that they “urged President Trump to direct the seizure of voting machines around the country after being told that the Department of Homeland Security had no lawful authority to do so.”
CNN has previously reported that in December 2020, Giuliani asked former DHS official Ken Cuccinelli whether the department could seize voting machines in certain states to be reexamined for evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Cuccinelli, who CNN previously reported has spoken to the committee, said in October that he told Giuliani the department had no legal authority to seize voting machines or interfere with state-run elections. Cuccinelli also said that “no one at any level pushed us to do anything outside of our existing mission sets.”
Trump in December briefly toyed with the idea that Powell could become a special counsel to him, making it possible for his administration to seize voting machines. Powell appears to have stepped away from being in…
Read More: January 6 committee subpoenas Giuliani and 3 others