The US Department of Justice has subpoenaed at least four people in an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s plan to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, according to media reports. The four people must testify before a so-called ‘grand jury’, which determines whether charges should be brought in the case.
Trump and his family’s plan, according to the ministry, was to install alternative electoral votes in a number of crucial states, including Georgia and Arizona. They would then not vote for the actual winner Joe Biden, but for Donald Trump.
In the US, voters’ votes go to 538 electoral votes. The candidate of the party that wins a state gets all the electoral votes of that state, even with a small difference in votes. A candidate needs 270 to win. Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes in 2020. The electoral votes cast their votes in the individual states in December. The US Congress counts and certifies those votes in January. Congress was doing that on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Brad Carver and Thomas Lane have been subpoenaed, according to The Washington Post and The New York Times. Carver serves on the board of the Republican Party in Georgia and Lane was a Trump campaign assistant in Arizona and New Mexico. According to The Post, David Shafer, the chairman of the Republican Party in Georgia, has also been subpoenaed. And The Times reports that Sean Flynn, a Trump campaign aide in Michigan, is also due to appear before the grand jury.