The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating former President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe on the January 6 Capitol attack,
According to The Washington Post, federal prosecutors have interviewed witnesses before a grand jury and asked them about conversations between Trump, his lawyers and members of his inner circle regarding a plot to replace Electoral College members with pro-Trump alternate electors in states President Joe Biden won.
They are also examining the actions surrounding Jan. 6, when thousands of Trump supporters, many armed, overran the Capitol on the day that Congress was to count the electoral ballots and affirm Biden’s victory in the 2020.
Sources told the publication that prosecutors have asked detailed questions about meetings Trump held in December 2020 and January 2021, gathering information on his campaign to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results, and what instructions – if any – Trump gave his team about the fake electors scheme.
That scheme was led by Trump’s election lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, but prosecutors wanted to know the extent of the now ex-president’s involvement, The Post said.
They want to know what Trump told his allies to do as he sought to overturn the 2020 election result.
The Post also reported that investigators received the phone records of Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Two subpoenas obtained by The Post issued to two Arizona state lawmakers who posed as fake electors asked for communications with ‘any member, employee, or agent of Donald J. Trump or any organization advocating in favor of the 2020 re-election of Donald J. Trump, including “Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.”‘
On Monday, ABC News reported that Pence’s former Chief of Staff Marc Short was spotted leaving D.C. District Court on Friday, alongside his lawyer.
Sources told the network that Short testified before a grand jury, compelled by a subpoena, as part of the DOJ’s probe.
Additionally, Pence lawyer Greg Jacob also appeared before a grand jury, The Post said.
In an interview that aired Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland did not rule out prosecuting Trump.
‘We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding January 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable,’ Garland told NBC’s Lester Holt. ‘That’s what we do.’
The DOJ probe is separate from the investigation being conducted by the January 6 House select committee – which may make criminal referals to the Justice Department as well, the top Republican on the panel, Rep. Liz Cheney, said in an interview last month.
‘The Justice Department has been doing the most wide-ranging investigation in its history and the committee is doing an enormously wide-ranging investigation as well,’ Garland said on NBC’s Nightly News.