U.S. Capitol riot panel demands testimony about 2020 fake electors plan

[January 29, 2022]    By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol has issued subpoenas to several individuals involved in an unsuccessful "alternate electors" scheme to keep former President Donald Trump in office, the panel's chairman said on Friday.

Police release tear gas into a crowd of pro-Trump protesters during clashes at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

The 14 relatively unknown individuals receiving subpoenas included David Shafer and Michael McDonald, the chairmen of the Georgia Republican Party and the Nevada Republican Party, respectively. Shafer and McDonald did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Republican Party operatives were asked to provide documents and sit for deposition interviews in the coming weeks.

The U.S. president is selected by 538 electors who are apportioned based on each state's population.

Officials on Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, led by his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, oversaw efforts https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-campaign-officials-including-giuliani-oversaw-2020-fake-electors-plan-cnn-2022-01-20 to put forward illegitimate elector certifications from seven states that the former president lost, CNN reported last week.

The U.S. Justice Department is also investigating the certifications, which Trump's allies sent to the National Archives in December 2020.

"We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme," committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The Select Committee has spoken to about 400 witnesses and has issued dozens of subpoenas.

The committee is aiming to release an interim report in the summer and a final report in the fall, a source familiar with the investigation said last month.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Rosalba O'Brien)

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