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The criminal cases related to Donald Trump’s post-defeat plots understandably receive a lot of attention, but it’s worth remembering that there are still some ongoing related investigations unfolding at the state level.
In Michigan, for example, state Attorney General Dana Nessel filed charges against a group of fake electors from the 2020 election last summer. Months later, there were related developments in Nevada. Around the same time, Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic state attorney general, told CNN that her office was still overseeing a “robust” investigation related to related alleged crimes.
Evidently, she wasn’t kidding. Politico reported:
Arizona investigators probing Republicans’ efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results have subpoenaed two members of Congress who were among Donald Trump’s closest Capitol Hill allies in the scheme. The subpoenas to Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, which have not previously been reported, ordered the two Arizona Republicans to testify before a grand jury.
According to the reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, there’s nothing to suggest state prosecutors are weighing possible charges against either of the far-right congressmen, though the subpoenas suggest that Mayes “has cast a far wider net in her probe than previously understood.”
It will also be of interest to see how Biggs and Gosar respond to the subpoenas. When the bipartisan House select committee investigating Jan. 6 subpoenaed Biggs nearly two years ago, the GOP lawmaker ignored the summons. Blowing off the state attorney general’s office would create a new set of difficulties for the congressman.
As for why, exactly, Mayes and her office would be interested in these specific House members, there can be little doubt that the two have insights that could shed light on the broader scandal.
For example, the Jan. 6 committee concluded that Biggs attended an infamous White House strategy session on Dec. 21, 2020, where Donald Trump and his allies discussed the plot to overturn the then-president’s election defeat.
What’s more, as Politico’s report added, “According to text messages obtained by the Jan. 6 committee, Biggs quickly contacted Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, after Election Day 2020 to push for state legislatures to overrule the results in multiple states Biden won. Biggs also told Meadows that Trump should not concede the election and reportedly worked with other Arizona Republicans to advance the fake elector effort.”
As for Gosar, the details are just as rich. The highly controversial Arizonan, who has described President Joe Biden as a “fraudulent usurper“ and praised Jan. 6 rioters as “peaceful patriots,” at one point claimed to have a secret CIA source who told him about hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes, pointing to an intelligence office that didn’t appear to exist.
What’s more, The New York Times reported in 2021 on the “band of loyalists” who worked closely with Trump in the aftermath of his defeat, taking on “an outsize role in pressuring the Justice Department, amplifying conspiracy theories and flooding the courts in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.”
Not surprisingly, Gosar was a member of this inner circle, and the article noted that he played a direct role in lobbying then-Gov. Doug Ducey, pressing him to investigate voting equipment made by Dominion Voting Systems.
Is it any wonder why investigators examining post-election efforts in Arizona want to hear from the congressmen?