Kim Quintero, a spokeswoman for Arizona’s Senate Republicans, confirmed to multiple media outlets that state Senate President Karen Phan (R) and state Sen. Kelly Townsend (R) received subpoenas last week. Quintero told The Washington Post that Fann and Townsend are cooperating with the calls and that staff have identified tens of thousands of records potentially related to the department’s request. “They’re asking for text messages and emails from a list of people, which I can’t reveal who those people are because we’ve been told not to talk to the media about it,” he said. Quintero, Fann and Townsend did not immediately return requests from The Hill for comment. News of the subpoenas was first reported by Arizona political tip sheet The Yellow Report. Phan led the audit of the election results in Arizona, a state won by President Biden. The results of the five-month audit revealed in September that Biden carried the state by a slightly larger margin than the final certified results showed. Fann announced in November that she would not seek re-election when her current term ends. The Post reported that Townsend was one of the state’s Republican lawmakers who pushed legislative leaders to select an alternate electoral roll for Arizona that would favor Trump. “As the chairman of the election committee, we were trying to create a committee and do investigations,” Townsend told the Post in an interview Friday. “Because it was in question, we wanted to have an alternate record in case fraud was discovered and established.” Quintero told NBC News that Senate Republicans have “no reason” to believe Phan and Townsend will be called to testify in Washington. How latest SCOTUS decision could block Democrats’ bid to restore net neutrality rules Supreme Court completes revolutionary term Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) and others testified before the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 during a public hearing last month that Trump and his allies pressured state and local officials to overturn the election results of 2020. The development follows a Post report last month that four people received subpoenas from the Justice Department as part of its investigation. The FBI executed search warrants on lawyers John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark last month, indicating the Justice Department is looking into the involvement of Trump allies in his plans to overturn the election results.
