Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano delivers his speech. (Photo by Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Jan. 6 select committee is expanding its investigation into "alternate" Trump electors with a fresh round of subpoenas for the former president's allies, the panel announced on Tuesday.
Why it matters: The development signals that the panel sees these illegitimate electors, which have come under renewed focus amid reports of coordination by Trump allies, as a potentially fruitful line of inquiry.
- Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani helped organize slates of Trump electors in key states won by Biden masquerading as "duly elected and qualified" and pushing to get certified, according to the Washington Post.
- Giuliani is in negotiations about testifying to the committee, the New York Times has reported.
- Attorneys general in two states are also investigating the electors, as are federal prosecutors.
Driving the news: Among those subpoenaed are former Trump campaign aides Michael Roman and Gary Michael Brown, Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano, Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem and Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward.
- According to the panel, Roman and Brown "participated in efforts to promote allegations of fraud in the November 2020 election and encourage state legislators to appoint false “alternate” slates of electors."
- Ward's subpoena says she "acted as a purported Electoral College elector to meet and ultimately transmit to Congress a set of alternate Electoral College votes."
- Mastriano "participated in a plan to arrange for an alternate slate of electors to be presented to the President of the Senate on January 6," according to his subpoena.
Two of the Trump allies subpoenaed by the committee are running for statewide office, with one running to be his state's highest ranking election official.
- Mastriano is running for governor of Pennsylvania.
- Finchem, who the subpoena cites as saying he went to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 to "to deliver an evidence book and letter to Vice President Pence showing key evidence of fraud," is running for Arizona secretary of state.