WI Officials Subpoenaed For Communications Involving Trump: Reports

WISCONSIN — The U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed two election officials in Wisconsin for potential communications from former president Donald Trump and others involved in his 2020 campaign, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other outlets reported Tuesday.

Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson and Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell confirmed receipt of the subpoenas for CBS58. Both were asked for documents of communications with Trump associates such as lawyers who assisted in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, the report noted. The Washington Post was the first to report on the special counsel's subpoenas.

Special counsel Smith — appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland — is in charge of the DOJ investigation into classified documents at one of Trump's estates alongside parts of the Jan. 6 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.

McDonell said one person on the list who had interaction with his office was Jim Troupis, an attorney for Trump based in Wisconsin. After the 2020 election, Trump ordered recounts for ballots cast in the largely Democratic Milwaukee and Dane counties. Meanwhile, Troupis spearheaded an effort to dismiss tens of thousands of absentee ballots, including his own, the Associated Press noted.

Christenson said he is working to comply with the request as soon as possible, adding, though, that he doesn't expect to overturn anything that's not already public, or find any "smoking gun."

“Many of those names aren’t familiar to me, so I don't know how many of those individuals did reach out to us," Christenson said. "For example, I don’t recall receiving anything from Rudy Giuliani. I think I would have remembered that. But who knows.”

The Wisconsin clerks are among officials in Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania who received the DOJ subpoenas.

The Associated Press contributed to writing and reporting in this story.