Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Arizona secretary of state's office in Jan. 6 probe

Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed the Arizona secretary of state’s office in recent months as part of his investigation into the Jan. 6 riot and the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a spokesperson for the state agency confirmed Wednesday.

Paul Smith-Leonard, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, said Smith sought information linked to a pair of lawsuits, one filed by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and the other by former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, that claimed errors and fraud tainted the 2020 presidential election results.

Specifically, Smith sought documents related to communications with opposing attorneys, discovery and proposed exhibits, Smith-Leonard said of the subpoena, which was issued as recently as May and was first reported by The Arizona Republic.

He said Coppersmith Brockelman PLC, the law firm representing the secretary of state’s office in relation to the subpoenas, complied with Smith's request.

Andy Gaona, an attorney at the law firm, declined to comment. A spokesperson for the special counsel's office also declined to comment.

In addition, former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers told CNN on Wednesday that the FBI interviewed him for several hours earlier this year about his interactions with Trump associates for the probe into the effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

"I'm hesitant to talk about any subpoenas, etc., but i have been interviewed by the FBI," Bowers said when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if he had been subpoenaed by the special counsel.

The Trump campaign's lawsuit was dismissed in November 2020, while Ward unsuccessfully sought U.S. Supreme Court review of her election challenge after the Arizona Supreme Court in December 2020 upheld a lower court’s decision regarding the accuracy of results in the state.

Ward came under scrutiny by the Justice Department for her efforts to create a competing slate of electors in Arizona declaring that Trump won even though certified results showed Joe Biden narrowly defeated him by 10,457 votes. Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, were also among 14 of 84 so-called fake electors the House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed last year.

Bowers testified to the Jan. 6 committee last year that he was pressured by Trump and his attorneys and allies to support their efforts to overturn the election results, which he said refused to do.

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He told CNN on Wednesday that he offered the FBI "nothing new" in his interview with the agency several months ago.

“They seemed to have a good grasp on all of the testimony that I’d given, and all the interviews that I had given to The Arizona Republic and people from The Washington Post," Bowers said. "They were very aware of the January 6th committee testimony that I gave. There may have been something that I said that was of interest, but I don’t remember anything standing out that had not been mentioned before.”

NBC News reported last month that "fake electors" from Nevada appeared before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. The same grand jury also subpoenaed former Trump White House official Steve Bannon in connection with Smith’s investigation, while former Vice President Mike Pence testified before the grand jury in April.

Pence recently said he doesn't “remember any pressure” from Trump to overturn the election results when he called Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in 2020 at the urging of the president. His comments came after The Washington Post reported Saturday that Trump sought to pressure Ducey, a Republican, to overturn the battleground state’s election results in a phone call in late 2020 and that Pence also called Ducey at Trump’s request.

Smith previously subpoenaed local officials in key swing states for communications involving Trump, his campaign and various aides and allies who assisted in his effort to overturn the 2020 election. One of the subpoenas was issued to Maricopa County, Arizona, where Fontes was an election official during the last presidential election.

Fontes became secretary of state in 2021, succeeding fellow Democrat Katie Hobbs, who oversaw the state's 2020 election. Hobbs defeated Republican Kari Lake in the governor’s race last year.