Rudy Giuliani, other Trump backers who pushed voter fraud claims, subpoenaed by Jan 6 committee
Rudy Giuliani headlined a new list of witnesses subpoenaed Tuesday by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack, as lawmakers zeroed in on former President Donald Trump’s legal team who promoted false allegations of voter fraud to keep Trump in office.
“The four individuals we’ve subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes,” the committee said in a statement.
“We expect these individuals to join the nearly 400 witnesses who have spoken with the Select Committee as the committee works to get answers for the American people about the violent attack on our democracy.”
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In addition to Giuliani, the panel issued subpoenas for Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, along with Boris Epshteyn who the committee said worked to advance the unsupported claims of election fraud.
The demands for testimony and documents from some of Trump’s closest legal advisers, while not unanticipated, is likely to prompt new challenges, including claims of attorney-client privilege.
Giuliani, who has long served as Trump’s personal attorney, was the face of the failed legal effort to invalidate the 2020 election results.
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“Between mid-November 2020 and January 6, 2021, you actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of former President Trump and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn election results,” the committee said in its letter demanding testimony and documents from the former New York mayor.
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Ellis, the committee said, prepared and distributed memos “purporting to analyze the constitutional authority for the Vice President to reject or delay counting electoral votes from states that had submitted alternate slates of electors.”
The committee said Epshteyn attended meetings at the Willard Hotel prior to the Jan. 6 assault and was a party to “a call with former President Trump on the morning of January 6th to discuss options to delay the certification of election results in the event of Vice President Pence’s unwillingness to deny or delay the certification.”
Neither the newly subpoenaed attorneys, nor their representatives immediately responded to the committee’s disclosure.
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