Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump campaign adviser Cleta Mitchell, five others

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has subpoenaed Cleta Mitchell and five others they accuse of promoting baseless claims of election fraud and forwarding various efforts to unwind former President Trump’s 2020 loss.

The subpoenas reach those involved with a number of aspects of the Trump effort to remain in the White House, from its plot to secure alternate electors to certify his victory to plans to seize voting machines.

Mitchell, a conservative lawyer who helped the Trump campaign file a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s election results, was on the now infamous phone call during which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse President Biden’s victory in the state.

Mitchell was also reportedly with Trump on Jan. 6.

Her dispatches from Georgia including accusations of voter fraud were among the items then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows asked the Department of Justice to investigate.

She is listed among three Trump allies recommended for additional scrutiny is a Senate report on Jan. 6 released in October.

The committee also subpoenaed Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney for the campaign in Wisconsin the panel says “actively promoted legal theories within the Trump campaign supporting the use of slates of bogus electors.”

“The Select Committee is seeking information about attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of electoral votes and any efforts to corruptly change the outcome of the 2020 election,” Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement. 

“The six individuals we’ve subpoenaed today all have knowledge related to those matters and will help the Select Committee better understand all the various strategies employed to potentially affect the outcome of the election,” he added.

The committee is also issuing subpoenas to two individuals it says were involved in efforts to seize voting machines.

Christina Bobb, a One America News host, reportedly was involved in discussions about drafting an order to seize voting machines in states contested by the Trump administration as a method to collect evidence on purported voting fraud.

The subpoena says Bobb was also present at the Trump campaign “war room” at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 6 alongside Rudy Giuliani’s legal team.

Katherine Friess was also subpoenaed in connection with the voting machine seizure campaign and is accused of being involved in efforts to somehow subpoena voting machines from county election boards.

The panel also says she “at one point traveled to Michigan in an attempt to obtain voting machine data directly from local officials.”

Friess sued the committee last week to attempt to prevent the panel from obtaining her phone records, which she argued would violate attorney-client privilege.

In an affidavit filed as part of the suit and obtained by ABC News, Friess describes herself as an “election integrity attorney” for the campaign.

“Stop the Steal” attorney Kurt Olsen was also among those compelled to testify by the committee, which noted that he reportedly spoke with Trump multiple times on Jan. 6 and was part of the pressure campaign at the Department of Justice.

“Just days before the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, you contacted various high-level officials at the Department of Justice at the former President’s ‘direct[ion]’ to discuss filing a last-minute challenge to the election based on a similar case that the Supreme Court had already rejected,” the committee wrote.

“In addition, you reportedly prepared a draft executive order for former President Trump that would have directed the U.S. Department of Justice ‘to take voter action,’” it added.

Finally, the committee subpoenaed Phillip Kline, a former Kansas attorney general whose law license has been indefinitely suspended after the state’s Supreme Court accused him of misleading legal guidance and perjury.

Kline is sought for his work in connecting the Trump campaign to state legislators.

“You convened a meeting between President Trump and more than 300 state legislatures in attempt to disseminate purported evidence of election fraud, encouraging them to sign onto a letter urging Vice President Mike Pence to delay the electoral certification on January 6, 2021,” the panel wrote.

This story was updated at 3:42 p.m.