Subpoenas for a top Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker’s “forensic investigation” of the 2020 election appear to be on the horizon.
On Friday, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, chairman of the Intergovernmental Operations Committee who sent letters earlier this month to three counties seeking information and materials related to the 2020 election and 2021 primary, said the trio would want “legal cover” if they comply with his request for the audit, to which Democratic officials in the state have voiced opposition.
The panel will “probably” vote on subpoenas, along with figuring out the chain of custody, sometime in mid-August, Mastriano told One America News Network, noting a meeting needs to be scheduled. He also predicted there would be some sort of “court fight.”
Letters were sent to Philadelphia, York, and Tiago counties earlier this month. Mastriano set a deadline of July 31 and threatened to pursue subpoenas if they did not comply, setting up a process reminiscent of the run-up to the GOP-led Arizona Senate’s audit in Maricopa County. Some officials in these Pennsylvania counties already signaled they would not fully comply with the request as things stood.
Shortly after Mastriano sent his letters, Pennsylvania’s Department of State advised all counties in the state against giving “third-party entities” access to the equipment or they’d risk decertification.
Voting machines in Pennsylvania’s Fulton County were decertified after local officials cooperated with a separate audit and allowed a third-party contractor to access data, acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Veronica Degraffenreid told county officials in a letter on Tuesday.
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Mastriano, who has said former President Donald Trump encouraged him to run for governor in 2022, played a role in backing the Wake TSI review.
“It is a darn shame they are being made an example of,” he said Friday. “And we will have their backs.”
President Joe Biden won the state of Pennsylvania by more than 81,000 votes. The state’s Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, has signaled his readiness to fight Mastriano’s investigation.
“This illogical, partisan effort to overturn the 2020 election will only lead to the decertification of voting machines that are compromised, additional expense for counties, and more partisanship that only seeks to undermine Pennsylvania’s elections. The administration will stand up to any attempt to disrupt our electoral process and undermine our elections,” said Wolf spokeswoman Elizabeth Rementer.
