Special counsel Jack Smith gets trove of new documents from local election officials
By Zachary Cohen, CNN
Special counsel Jack Smith has received a trove of new documents from local election officials in Wisconsin and Nevada who were subpoenaed as part of the ongoing criminal investigation by the Justice Department into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The documents were handed by officials in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, and Clark County, Nevada, in response to Smith’s subpoena. They include communications with lawyers working on former President Donald Trump’s behalf.
The subpoenas requested any communications with several individuals who were involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election at the state level, including some who are known to be of interest to federal prosecutors and were identified by the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol as key players in the push to upend Joe Biden’s victory.
Among them is James Troupis, an attorney behind a failed lawsuit challenging the election results in Wisconsin. Troupis also was involved in efforts to put forward slates of fake electors from key battleground states that Trump had lost as well as in the pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the election results on January 6, according to documents released by the House January 6 committee.
The response to Smith’s subpoena from Milwaukee County officials has not been previously reported. The Associated Press first reported that Clark County officials had also handed over documents to the special counsel.
In searching for information sought by the subpoenas, “Milwaukee County focused on the County employees who most frequently communicated with attorneys and surrogates for the Trump campaign leading up to the election and after, including during the pendency of the recount,” the county wrote to Smith.
The subpoenas requested communications from local officials with Trump, specifically, and from a list of several people who worked with or advised his campaign. A copy of the subpoena sent to the Milwaukee County clerk and previously obtained by CNN sought communications from June 1, 2020, through January 20, 2021, the day Trump left office.
The documents provided by Clark County officials did not include any communications with Trump directly but did show lawyers working for the former president raising concerns about potential election fraud that were later found to be baseless, according to the records obtained by CNN via an open records request.
CNN reported last month that Smith’s team sent subpoenas to local and state officials in all seven of the key states — Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — targeted by Trump and his allies as part of their bid to overturn the election results.
And CNN reported over the summer that the DOJ had issued numerous subpoenas and was seeking information in the states where Trump’s campaign convened false electors as part of the effort to subvert the Electoral College.
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Holmes Lybrand contributed to this story.
