Jan. 6 committee issues six subpoenas focused on ‘alternate electors’ plot

WASHINGTON (CN) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection issued subpoenas Tuesday aimed at gathering information from six people it believes had knowledge of or participated in the plot to put forward fraudulent "alternate electors" from swing states won by President Joe Biden as a way to keep former President Donald Trump in power and halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

The committee formally requested information from six people, including Michael Roman and Gary Michael Brown — who were director and deputy director of the Trump campaign's operations on Election Day — and several prominent GOP state leaders.

“The Select Committee is seeking information about efforts to send false slates of electors to Washington and change the outcome of the 2020 election. We’re seeking records and testimony from former campaign officials and other individuals in various states who we believe have relevant information about the planning and implementation of those plans," Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson wrote in a statement.

Roman and Brown "reportedly participated in efforts to promote allegations of fraud in the November 2020 election and encourage state legislators to appoint false 'alternate' slates of electors," according to the committee.

Two Republican state lawmakers, Douglas Mastriano, a state senator from Pennsylvania, and Mark Finchem, a state representative from Arizona, are included in the committee's subpoenas.

Mastriano witnessed the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol, had a conversation with Trump about post-election strategy and participated in the elector plan, according to the committee.

Finchem reportedly espoused unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and organized a Nov. 30, 2020, event where members of Trump's legal team disseminated conspiracies that the election had been stolen. He was also scheduled to speak at the "Stop the Steal," rally that led up to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the committee.

Former Chairwoman of the Michigan GOP Laura Cox and Chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party Kelli Ward are also being called on to cooperate with the panel's investigation.

Cox reportedly witnessed Rudy Giuliani pressure state lawmakers to ignore election results in Michigan, telling them that certifying the election results that would codify Biden's win would be a "criminal act," according to the committee.

Ward reportedly talked to Trump and his staff about the election results in Arizona and texted an Arizona election official: "[w]e need you to stop the counting," per the committee.

The Arizona Republican also claimed to be an Electoral College elector and attempted to transmit alternate votes to Congress as part of the plot to overturn or delay Congress' certification of the election, according to the committee.

At the end of last month, the committee began to home in on the fraudulent electors who attempted to subvert the Electoral College, subpoenaing 14 Republicans who had served as the bogus electors.

More than 550 people have cooperated with the panel's investigation thus far, as the committee continues to dig into the goings on in and around the White House in the lead-up to Jan. 6, 2020.

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