Clark County to comply with DOJ subpoena on Trump messages
Clark County is complying with the Department of Justice’s subpoena requesting communications from former President Donald Trump and his attorneys as part of the department’s criminal investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Nevada.
A Washington, D.C.-based FBI special agent on Nov. 22 requested documents from the Clark County elections department, “pursuant to a criminal investigation being conducted by the Special Counsel’s Office,” giving the county until Dec. 9 to submit the records for a grand jury to review.
The county is working with the Department of Justice to ensure compliance with the subpoena, said Director of Public Communications Erik Pappa in an email, but the county needs more time to compile the requested records, which primarily consist of emails.
The Department of Justice is seeking material for the period between June 1, 2020 through Jan. 20, 2021 “to, from, or involving Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., Donald J. Trump, or any employee or agent of, or attorney for, the Trump Campaign, or any records or documents that record, summarize, transcribe, annotate, or reflect any such communications.”
Ongoing investigation
The Justice Department is conducting an inquiry into Trump’s attempts to overthrow the 2020 election, including slates of electors that sent illegitimate rosters of Trump electors to Washington, allegedly as part of a scheme to allow Trump to remain in office despite losing the election.
Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith as a special counsel to investigate the Trump election efforts.
As part of that investigation, the Justice Department seized the cellphone of Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald in June and issued a subpoena to him as well as James DeGraffenreid, the national committeeman for the party. They were two of six “alternate electors” who on Dec. 14, 2020, signed a fake electoral document titled “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada” that declared Trump as the winner of Nevada — despite him losing to President Joe Biden by about 30,000 votes — and sent it to Washington D.C.
That subpoena issued to McDonald sought records of communications with top political advisers of Trump, and the associates were alleged to have participated in a conspiracy to block Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election.
House committee also investigating
The House of Representatives’ select committee charged with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. also subpoenaed McDonald to appear before the committee seeking information about his role and participation in the slate of electors casting votes for Trump and his role in the events of Jan. 6, according to the subpoena.
McDonald told the Review-Journal on Tuesday that everything has to go through his attorney and declined to comment further. He previously said he answered the subpoena and testified before the committee. He has also defended his decision to sign the fake documents saying, “we weren’t fake. We were elected.”
Although the people who signed the fake certificates were legitimately designated as electors by the state GOP and would have been able to cast votes had Trump won Nevada, the certificate they signed was illegitimate: Nevada law says the secretary of state must preside over the meeting of electors for the candidate who got the most votes in the state.
The Justice Department’s subpoena to Clark County appears to focus on legal attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Nevada, requesting communications from 19 people associated with the Trump campaign, many of whom are attorneys.
The subpoena also includes a list of 19 people associated with the Trump campaign that the department is seeking communications from. Those include: Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani; Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election, Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who worked on Trump’s legal team; Joe diGenova, a Washington-based lawyer who was part of Trump’s post-election legal team; Sidney Powell, an attorney and former federal prosecutor who tried to overturn the presidential election; and Victoria Toensing, an attorney and Republican Party operative who owns a law firm with her husband diGenova.
The list also includes John Eastman, who reportedly devised the scheme to send fake electoral certificates to Washington, and Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on Twitter.
