© 2024 MICHIGAN PUBLIC
91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

US House Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Michigan Republicans

Security fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol after a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building hoping to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election.
CRAIG - stock.adobe.com
/
418348419
Security fence surrounding the U.S. Capitol after a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building hoping to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election.

Two Michigan Republicans are on a list of people subpoenaed Friday by the U.S. House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

Kathy Berden is a Republican National Committeewoman from Michigan, and Mayra Rodriguez is a party activist who ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat. Both were listed as presidential electors from Michigan for Donald Trump in a list sent by Trump supporters to the National Archives, which rejected the attempt because the former president lost both the popular and Electoral College votes.

Efforts to reach Berden and Rodriguez for comment were unsuccessful.

Both were sent letters signed by Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi who chairs the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol.

The letter says, "The Select Committee is investigating the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack and issues relating to the peaceful transfer of power, in order to identify and evaluate lessons learned and to recommend to the House and its relevant committees corrective laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations."

"The inquiry includes examination of how various individuals and entities coordinated their activities leading up to the events of January 6, 2021," it continues.

"Based on publicly available information and information provided to the Select Committee, we believe that you have documents and information that are relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation. For example, according to documents sent to the National Archives, you were a purported Electoral College elector who met with other purported electors on or about December 14, 2020 to cast votes for former President Trump and former Vice President Pence despite the fact that your state had made a final determination that Joseph Biden, Jr. and Kamala Harris were the winners of the November 2020 presidential election and the appointment of their electors had been certified."

The House committee chair wants to ask about planning and coordination of efforts to falsify the election results. Those efforts included sending a false slate of Michigan electors to the National Archives.

Subpoenas were also sent to a dozen other sham electors in other states.

Rick Pluta is Senior Capitol Correspondent for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He has been covering Michigan’s Capitol, government, and politics since 1987.
Related Content