Jan. 6 Committee Comes for Trump's 'Elite Strike Force' of Election Fraud Lawyers, Including Rudy Giuliani
The Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani, one of the most notable players in former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis also received subpoenas on Tuesday. The three lawyers belonged to what Ellis once described as an “elite strike force” of attorneys working to root out nonexistent fraud in the 2020 election. The team of lawyers was unable to turn up any evidence that the election was illegitimate, and instead drew condemnation, and litigation, for spreading a variety of quack conspiracy theories meant to sow doubt in President Biden’s victory.
Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump campaign adviser who was present at the Willard Hotel meeting where Giuliani and other Trumpworld figures discussed how to overturn the election results, was also subpoenaed on Tuesday.
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The committee notes that Giuliani and Powell both “actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of the former President”; that Ellis “reportedly prepared and circulated two 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”; and that Epshteyn participated in the Willard Hotel meetings and spoke with Trump on the morning of Jan. 6 about how to delay the election certification.
“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,” Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement announcing the subpoenas.
Giuliani, Powell, Ellis, and Epshteyn were all asked to provide the committee with the requested materials by Feb. 1, and to appear for depositions on Feb. 8.
Shortly after the committee announced the subpoenas for the quartet of lawyers, CNN reported that the committee has subpoenaed and obtained phone records connected to Trump’s son Eric, as well as Kimberly Guilfoyle, a prominent Trump fundraiser who was involved in the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, and who is also engaged to Trump’s other son, Don Jr.
“We’re piecing together information from the president’s inner circle and others who were in a position to see and hear what the plot was leading up to the riot,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the committee, told CNN on Monday night.
Chairman Thompson noted on Tuesday that the committee has already spoken to over 400 witnesses as they investigate the attack on the Capitol and the circumstances that led to it.
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