The federal investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election appears to be heating up.
The Justice Department issued 40 subpoenas in the past week, a broad expansion of the politically charged inquiry roughly two months before the November midterm elections, according to the New York Times.
The phones of two former Trump advisers, Boris Epshteyn and Mike Roman, were seized as evidence, sources told the news outlet.
Dan Scavino, former President Donald Trump’s onetime social media director, was among those subpoenaed, per the report, as well as Bernard Kerik, former New York City police commissioner. Kerik’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, told the New York Times that Kerik originally agreed to interview with the department voluntarily.
Trump is facing multiple investigations on the federal and state levels as he mulls a third run for the White House in 2024. He has broadly denied wrongdoing and claims he is being targeted by political “witch hunts.”
In one subpoena obtained by the New York Times, the department asked for records or communications between people who organized, spoke at, or provided security to Trump’s rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, where he told the crowd that if Vice President Mike Pence “does the right thing, we win the election.”
The Justice Department also asked for information relating to people within the executive and legislative branches who may have also participated in the rally or tried to obstruct the certification of electoral votes.
At least 20 subpoenas seek to find any conversations between or about lawyers related to the fake elector scheme as Trump and his allies challenged the results across several battleground states.
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The subpoenas and confiscation of phones come as the House Jan. 6 committee is set to reconvene on Tuesday, debating whether to call Trump and Pence to testify. Pence has previously stated he would take any summons with “due consideration.”
