Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigative team has taken a growing interest in attorneys and others involved in former President Trump’s legal efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
According to Journal sources, special counsel investigators have issued subpoenas and asked questions that are hinged on several key figures involved in post-election efforts to toss results, including Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell, as well as Republican operative Mike Roman, who headed Election Day operations for the 2020 Trump campaign and dispatched lawyers to swing states ahead of the November 3 election.
The special counsel’s office has also requested communications from another attorney, Emily Newman who worked closely with Powell, the Journal reported.
Further, prosecutors questioned Giuliani about the role of attorney John Eastman, who was the architect of strategies to stop Congress from certifying President Biden’s electoral college victory, according to the Journal.
The Journal’s report follows the revelation of emails that showed such Trump attorneys as Kenneth Cheseboro advised Nevadans Jim DeGraffenreid and Michael McDonald on how to become fake electors.
Private messages released by last year’s House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, show that McDonald, DeGraffenreid, and other Nevada fake electors were eager to participate in what Chesebro described to them as an effort to “keep alive the possibility that the votes could be flipped to Trump and Biden.”
The messages also reveal that the would-be fake electors were concerned at times about the potential legal issues at play. In one message DeGraffenreid writes to another fake elector ahead of casting their ballots on December 14, 2020, “facts and legalities don’t matter—only what you can burn someone with.”
Over the weekend it was reported that, like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who was interviewed recently by the special counsel’s office, Trump in 2020 attempted to pressure then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R) of Arizona to overturn his election loss in that state.
Along with his investigation into former President Trump’s handling of classified documents, which has brought about an indictment on 37 criminal counts, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to investigate any potential criminal wrongdoing by Trump or his associates regarding the 2020 election and the related January 6 insurrection.
PHOTO: Trump attorneys Giulani and Powell in December 2020
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