The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued subpoenas to two Arizona state senators seeking information about interactions they may have had with former President Trump’s lawyers as part of the department’s investigation into attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. , multiple media outlets reported.
Kim Quintero, a spokeswoman for Arizona’s Senate Republicans, confirmed to multiple media outlets that state Senate President Karen Phan (R) and state Sen. Kelly Townsend (R) received subpoenas last week.
Quintero told The Washington Post that Phan and Townsend are cooperating with the subpoenas and that officials have identified tens of thousands of records potentially related to the department’s request.
“They want text messages and emails from a list of people that I can’t reveal who those people are because they told us not to talk to the media about it,” she said.
Quintero, Phan and Townsend did not immediately return requests from The Hill for comment.
News of the subpoenas was first reported by Arizona political newsletter The Yellow Report.
Phan led a review of the election results in Arizona, a state that President Biden won. The results of the five-month audit revealed in September that Biden carried the state by a slightly larger margin than the final certified results showed.
Phan announced in November that she would not seek re-election when her current term ends.
The Post reported that Townsend was one of the Republican state lawmakers who urged legislative leaders to select an alternative list of Arizona voters who would prefer Trump.
“As chairman of the election commission, we were trying to hold a committee and do investigations,” Townsend told the Post in an interview Friday. “Since it was in question, we wanted to have an alternate list in case fraud was detected and discovered.”
Quintero told NBC News that state Senate Republicans have “no reason” to believe Fan and Townsend will be asked to testify in Washington, D.C.
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Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) and others testified before a House Select Committee on Jan. 6 during a public hearing last month that Trump and his allies pressured state and local officials to overturn the results of the 2020 elections
The development follows a Post report last month that four people had received subpoenas from the DOJ as part of its investigation.
The FBI executed search warrants for lawyers John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark last month, indicating that the Justice Department is investigating the involvement of Trump allies in his plans to overturn the election results.
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