Justice Department subpoenas Georgia, New Mexico state officials in Jan. 6 probe

Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The Justice Department's special counsel Jack Smith has issued subpoenas for the secretaries of state in Georgia and New Mexico along with local election officials in three other states in connection with former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger were sent subpoenas. Trump asked Raffensperger in a phone call after the election to "find" him exactly the number of votes he needed to win the state in a recorded call phone.

The subpoena did not ask Raffensperger to appear in person but to provide documents connected with Trump's post-election efforts with his office.

In a subpoena to officials in Nevada's Clark County, prosecutors are calling for records involving 19 Trump supporters, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and John Eastman.

Smith, who was appointed to lead the investigation by Attorney General Merrick Garland last month, issued other subpoenas for top elections officials in Wayne County in Michigan; Milwaukee and Dane counties in Wisconsin; Maricopa County in Arizona; and Allegheny County in Pennsylvania.

Maricopa County, Arizona's largest and most diverse, has been targeted by Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in her loss to Katie Hobbs in the state governor's race last month. Lake is currently challenging her loss there.

In that case, Lake is claiming in a lawsuit that the "number of illegal votes cast" in the election "far exceeds the 17,117-vote margin" between the two candidates after Arizona certified the election results on Monday.