Former Arizona House speaker spoke with FBI in 2020 election probe
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice
(CNN) — A former top Republican official in Arizona, who rejected pressure from Donald Trump and his allies following the former president’s 2020 election defeat, told CNN Wednesday night that he has spoken with the FBI as part of the ongoing criminal probe related to efforts to overturn the vote.
Former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers revealed the interview with investigators lasted four hours and took place a few months ago.
“I am hesitant to talk about any subpoenas et cetera. But I have been interviewed by the FBI,” Bowers told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, when asked whether he had been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
Bowers said he talked with the investigators about a call he had with Trump and Rudy Giuliani after the election, and a second call from just Trump.
The interview, which Bowers hadn’t previously disclosed, adds to what’s known about the special counsel’s probe as investigators have recently zeroed in on the efforts to put forward alternate slates of electors in seven states Trump lost. He is the latest highest ranking Republican official known to have spoken with federal investigators about direct conversations with Trump and his campaign.
“They seemed to have a good grasp on all of the testimony that I had given,” Bowers told Collins of investigators. “They were very aware of the January 6th (congressional) committee testimony that I gave. There may have been something that I said that was of interest. But I don’t remember anything standing out that had not been mentioned before.”
In recent weeks, federal investigators have focused on Trump’s efforts, as well as those of his top lawyers as they organized fake electors to submit votes to Congress on his behalf and as they sought to sway then-Vice President Mike Pence into blocking the election result.
CNN previously reported investigators secured evidence and testimony from fake electors in Nevada, Georgia’s secretary of state and various election offices in battleground states – indicating the thoroughness of Smith’s work to date.
Bowers said investigators’ questions made him believe the probe is broad.
“There is a lot of information about attorneys that work with them. About Mr. Giuliani that made the calls and visited us. And other members of his team, who they were, when the meetings were, what was discussed in those meetings or in that meeting,” he said on CNN. “And so, I presume that all of them are involved. How that shakes out as the threshold evidence? I don’t know. I just dabble with a paintbrush.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Jack Forrest contributed to this report.
