The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol issued six more subpoenas on Tuesday to individuals who it said "promoted false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and participated in, or encouraged, various actions based on those false claims."
The group includes Cleta Mitchell, who participated in the now-infamous phone call between former President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where he pressured Georgia's top elections official to “find” over 11,000 votes that would overturn the results of the election in the state.
The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed credible evidence that you publicly promoted claims that the 2020 election was stolen and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of the election results based on your allegations," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the panel's chairman, wrote in a letter to Mitchell.
"Between early November 2020 and January 6, 2021 (and thereafter), you actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of former President Trump and sought to convince state and federal officials to take steps to overturn the results," Thompson continued. "In particular, you participated in efforts to prevent, delay, or overturn the certification of the popular vote results in several states; promoted false claims of election fraud to Members of Congress; and participated in a call in which President Trump pressured the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss there."
Thompson also said that Mitchell was in contact with Trump on Jan. 6 and in the days prior.
The panel also issued subpoenas to:
- Kenneth Chesebro
- Christina Bobb
- Katherine Friess
- Kurt Olsen
- Phillip Kline
"The six individuals we've subpoenaed today all have knowledge related to those matters and will help the Select Committee better understand all the various strategies employed to potentially affect the outcome of the election," Thompson wrote in a statement. "We expect these witnesses to join the hundreds who have cooperated with the Select Committee as we work to provide the American people with answers about the violence of January 6th and its causes."
Cheseboro, the panel said, "actively promoted legal theories within the Trump campaign supporting the use of slates of bogus electors" in states Trump lost.
Bobb, a host with the right-wing One America News Network, "was reportedly involved in efforts to draft an executive order for then-President Trump that would have directed federal agencies to seize voting machines in numerous states," the panel said, also noting that she was reportedly at the so-called "war room" at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6.
Freiss was also reportedly involved in efforts to draft the order to seize voting machines "and at one point traveled to Michigan in an attempt to obtain voting machine data directly from local officials," the panel said.
Olsen, according to the panel, "reportedly prepared a draft executive order for then-President Trump that would have directed the Department of Justice to “take voter action,” and had multiple phone calls with the then-President on Jan. 6."
Kline "convened a meeting between then-President Trump and more than 300 state legislators in an attempt to disseminate purported evidence of election fraud and encourage legislators to sign a letter urging Vice President Mike Pence to delay the electoral certification" on Jan. 6, the panel said.