Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors have not taken any steps to enforce months-old subpoenas issued to Donald Trump\u2019s false presidential electors in Arizona, state GOP Chair Kelli Ward indicated in a Friday court filing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grand jury issued subpoenas to each of Arizona\u2019s alternate electors,\u201d Ward\u2019s attorney Laurin Mills wrote in the filing<\/a>. \u201cThe recipients objected to the subpoenas on a wide variety of grounds in late June 2022 and the Government has not responded to those objections or taken any action to enforce those subpoenas.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward was one of dozens of GOP activists who received grand jury subpoenas in June connected to Donald Trump\u2019s effort to subvert the 2020 election. Those activists, including numerous GOP officials in a handful of states won by Joe Biden, signed certificates claiming to be their states\u2019 legitimate presidential electors \u2014 an element of Trump\u2019s effort to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election.<\/p>\n The batch of subpoenas was one of the earliest public signs of DOJ\u2019s rapidly unfolding criminal investigation related to Trump\u2019s effort to remain in power despite his defeat. The wave of subpoenas also coincided with the public hearings held by the Jan. 6 select committee, which highlighted the effort by Trump to assemble false presidential electors to provoke a controversy intended to overturn the election on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if DOJ has taken steps to enforce subpoenas issued to false electors in states other than Arizona. It\u2019s also unclear how the false Arizona electors lodged the objections to the grand jury subpoenas that Ward described in her filing, however, the grand jury probe is overseen by Washington, D.C.\u2018s chief federal district court judge Beryl Howell, who has been adjudicating closed-door disputes throughout the investigation.<\/p>\n Ward, one of 11 false electors for Trump in Arizona, has also been locked in a legal battle since February against the Jan. 6 select committee, which subpoenaed T-Mobile for her phone records as part of its expansive probe. Ward\u2019s description of the status of the grand jury subpoenas came in filings connected to her appeal of a federal judge\u2019s ruling granting the select committee access to her phone logs.<\/p>\n