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The Justice Department's investigation into state officials involved in the effort to undermine and potentially overturn the 2020 election results is heating up. It’s fitting that the latest development comes out of Arizona.
On Thursday, we learned that the FBI issued subpoenas to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and state Sen. Kelly Townsend. The subpoenas are part of the probe into former President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn Joe Biden's win.
It’s completely understandable if Fann and Townsend — both Republicans — aren’t recognizable names to you. To be sure, there are many right-wing lawmakers who have peddled Trump's "big lie" about election fraud.
Fann and Townsend are only the most recent Arizona Republicans in recent weeks who’ve received subpoenas stemming from this investigation. The list includes the chair of the Arizona GOP and multiple people who signed and sent fake electoral college votes to the federal government. The growing list of subpoenas is a sign that Arizona could be as big a legal threat to Trump World as any state in the country.
Fann is from the same hyper-conservative Arizona enclave — Prescott — as far-right Rep. Paul Gosar (to give you a sense of her politics). As Arizona Senate president in 2020, she authorized the phony post-election “audit” Trump and his campaign demanded after he lost in Arizona. That pseudo-investigation found no evidence of widespread voter fraud, despite being run by a right-wing advocacy group. Fann also communicated with a “reporter” from the pro-Trump, extremist outlet One America News in the lead-up to Jan. 6. Allegedly acting as a liaison for Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, that OAN staffer relayed several baseless allegations of election fraud for Fann to investigate.
Townsend told a TV station in Arizona that the FBI subpoenaed her communications with Trump lawyers. Townsend is a Trump-obsessed lawmaker who backed the his election fraud lies, as well. In December 2020, she tried to pressure Arizona’s Republican attorney general to investigate Trump’s false election fraud claims, and she tweeted her support for the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” movement on Jan. 6.
Federal investigators are likely interested in these things, and more.
As for Trump, it’s no surprise he and his campaign targeted Arizona so forcefully with their anti-democratic scheme. I wrote last year that Republicans see the state as a breeding ground for conservative extremism. But the FBI’s investigation might blunt that effort by exposing the unethical and unlawful things the GOP is doing to make their dream a reality.