DOJ issues 40 subpoenas in Jan. 6 probe: report

The Justice Department has issued roughly 40 subpoenas in the past week in connection with its investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election by former President Trump and his allies, The New York Times reported Monday.

An attorney for Bernard Kerik, the former New York Police commissioner who emerged as a vocal Trump supporter and claimed there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election, confirmed Kerik was one of the individuals to receive a subpoena.

Attorney Timothy Parlatore said the subpoena was served early last week when a team of FBI agents arrived at Kerik’s home. Parlatore would not share the subpoena, but described it as broad.

“Basically, give us anything and everything related to anybody that is tangentially related to the Trump campaign including a long, long laundry list,” he said.

The New York Times reported that Boris Ephsteyn, who served as an adviser to the 2020 Trump campaign and helped with challenges to the election results, had his phone seized as evidence, as did Mike Roman, who was part of a plan to submit alternative electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.

Dan Scavino, a top White House aide throughout Trump’s four years in office, was also subpoenaed, the Times reported.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Stanley Woodward, an attorney for Scavino, declined to comment

The Times reported that the subpoenas seek information related to a plan concocted by Trump associates to submit slates of alternative electors from states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona, which President Biden narrowly won in 2020. The goal was to submit names of electors who would cast their support for Trump instead of Biden, potentially upending the result.

Congress ultimately certified Biden as the winner on Jan. 6, 2021, after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol complex in a bid to derail the proceedings.

The progress in the Justice Department’s investigation into the events surrounding Jan. 6 and the 2020 election come as the agency is also investigating Trump’s handling of classified materials after leaving office.

The FBI last month searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after it for months tried to secure sensitive documents the former president had taken with him after leaving office.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots is also expected to resume its work following the summer recess. It has previously held several public hearings highlighting Trump’s false claims of election fraud, efforts to pressure Pence to overturn the election, and the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6.

Rebecca Beitsch contributed.