Arizona Sens. Karen Fann, Kelly Townsend subpoenaed by DOJ over Jan. 6 insurrection

PHOENIX — Republican Arizona Sens. Karen Fann and Kelly Townsend have been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice regarding a probe into alleged actions by former President Donald Trump’s campaign surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“President Fann and Senator Townsend are fully cooperating in releasing whatever emails and text messages they are requesting,” Kim Quintero, director of communications for Arizona Senate Republicans, confirmed to KTAR News 92.3 FM on Friday.

“We have no reason to believe they will be called to testify in Washington D.C.”

The FBI actions are part of a flurry of recent activity by the Department of Justice as it seeks information from people involved in efforts to discredit the 2020 election results. It is separate from the congressional inquiry into the Capitol insurrection.

Fann said on Friday that virtually all her email and text message communications are already public. That’s because of records requests and lawsuits by news media groups and American Oversight, a watchdog group that has sought records related to the Senate’s “audit” of election results in the state’s most populous county.

“I’m pretty sure every single thing that they’re requesting is stuff that’s already out there,” Fann said in a Friday interview. “I told him, ‘You know what, I have been FOIA-ed almost every week for 18 months. And so I don’t think there’s anything left there that everybody hasn’t seen yet.”

FOIA is an acronym for freedom of information request.

Fann said she believes the Justice Department is trying to get information from anyone at all connected to Trump’s effort, no matter how innocuous. She has consistently said the Senate’s audit was not part of any effort to overturn the election, just a way to determine if questions about the election raised by Republicans were justified.

“So anybody and everybody,” she said. “And the mere fact that I’m the Senate President and our Senate caucus ordered the audit to answer our constituents’ questions, therefore, I’m part of the mix at this point because I dared to ask for an audit to see if our laws were being followed or not.”

Authorities have ramped up their investigation of associates of the former president in recent weeks, including in the Grand Canyon State.

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, her husband, Michael Ward, and two other alternate electors received subpoenas last week, according to a third person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Agents have also served subpoenas on the Republican Party chairmen of Nevada and Georgia, two states that went for President Joe Biden and where Trump allies created slates of “alternate electors” intended to subvert the vote.

Republicans in two other states — Michigan and Pennsylvania — disclosed they too had been interviewed by the FBI.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Follow @KTAR923