Skip to content Skip to footer

Report: DOJ’s Jan. 6 Inquiry Focusing on All Efforts by Trump to Undo Election

A number of subpoenas issued and actions taken indicate the DOJ’s investigation into the former president is heating up.

Former President Donald Trump talks to the press before departing from the South Lawn of the White House on July 19, 2019, in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is stepping up its efforts to investigate attempts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to usurp the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to reporting from CNN.

The department’s investigators are examining “nearly every aspect of former President Donald Trump’s efforts” to overturn the race that he lost to President Joe Biden, the news agency reported this week. CNN bases its analysis on recent actions by investigators as well as the content of subpoenas served to Trump’s allies that it was able to access.

The DOJ’s January 6 investigation of Trump includes his campaign’s plot to use fake electors to alter the outcome of the Electoral College, as well as the former president’s general pushing of baseless claims of election fraud, which he used to help fundraise for his own Save America PAC after his legitimate loss.

Just this week, it was reported that around 40 subpoenas had been sent to Trump’s former aides, demanding information relating to their communications after Trump’s electoral defeat, as well as after he left the White House. Investigators are also looking at communications and expenditures regarding his “Stop the Steal” campaign rally on January 6, 2021, which preceded the mob of Trump loyalists’ attack on the U.S. Capitol building.

It’s also been reported recently that the DOJ has opened a grand jury inquiry into the Save America PAC, over its raising of funds from donors using false claims of election fraud with the promise that the money raised would go to Trump’s legal challenges.

The latest actions by the DOJ, according to CNN, exemplify a more aggressive approach than seen so far in its investigations into the attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election by Trump and his allies.

The stepping up of the January 6 investigation is unrelated to a separate Trump inquiry involving his improper removal of government documents, including highly classified material, from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, following his departure from office.

The subpoenas that the news agency examined make demands to Trump’s allies for a number of items, including documents relating to the raising of funds for challenging the election’s outcome, as well as communications records of former aides dating back to the fall of 2020. The DOJ investigation also appears to be going after Trump specifically, trying to determine to what extent he was involved in the plots to undo the rightful election result.

Investigators are “now encompassing individuals closer and closer to the President to learn more and more about what the President knew and when he knew it,” David Laufman, a former federal prosecutor, said on CNN Monday night.

“The DOJ investigation into Trump is going big — they are probing a wide-ranging conspiracy involving fraudulent fundraising, fraudulent electors, and fraudulent justifications for trying to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power, as they should,” tweeted Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official under Trump who wrote the famed 2018 “Anonymous” op-ed critical of the then-president.

Others are calling on the DOJ to do more — including charging Trump with crimes relating to the Capitol attack, given that it has long appeared that there is enough evidence to do so.

“We are now 616 days since Jan 6,” political commentator Dean Obeidallah said on Twitter. “The DOJ may one day indict Donald Trump but every day they fail to charge him makes our nation less safe.”

We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.

As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.

Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.

As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.

At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.

Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.

You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.