Merrick Garland ramps things up:
The Justice Department has issued about 40 subpoenas in the last week related to the actions of former President Donald Trump, his allies and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to sources familiar with the matter.
It also seized two telephones, the sources said.
The subpoenas and phone seizures, first reported by The New York Times, are the latest developments in the sprawling investigation into the former president.
The Times, citing people familiar with the investigation, reported that Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn was one of the people whose phone was seized. A source who spoke to Epshteyn confirmed to NBC News that his phone was taken last week.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot subpoenaed Epshteyn and three other Trump associates — Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell — in January.
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik’s lawyer confirmed to NBC News that he received a subpoena last week. (our emphasis)
It's been reported that, in addition to lickspittle Epshteyn, the phone of former Malignant Loser Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino was also seized.
The significance of the phone seizures is explained by former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade:
... [Y]ou see that the circles are closing in on the highest levels of government here, close aides to the former president. As I read these subpoenas, it seems we are seeing the fake elector scheme meets seditious conspiracy. So what they're really looking for is a commonality to connect these two threads together.
If you can make the connection, you can put Donald Trump right at the center of a conspiracy. Talked about seizing telephones. It says to me they have looked at phone records they have been able to get from the phone company but there may be encrypted phone messages they can only get from the phones themselves. These tend to be the ones that are done in secret, the ones that might be the most sensitive.
The broad and escalating nature of the DOJ investigation (which has also received testimony and information from the January 6 select committee) would indicate, as McQuade surmises, that a case for seditious conspiracy involving the Malignant Loser and his cabal of coup plotters is being made by the Department's investigators. It's the most high- profile, explosive case the Department has ever been involved in, so they've been doggedly meticulous in gathering evidence; bursts of activity like the issuance of these subpoenas give us a glimmer of what must be going on under the surface of the investigation, like a torpedo heading for its target sometimes breaks through the waves.
(Photo: Leah Mills/ Reuters)
