Justice Department Subpoenas Clark County for 2020 Trump Campaign Communications

Posted on: December 13, 2022, 10:29h. 

Last updated on: December 13, 2022, 12:21h.

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The US Justice Department has ordered Clark County, home to Las Vegas, to turn over all communications between local election officials and the 2020 presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

Justice Department DOJ Donald Trump 2020 election
President Donald Trump arrives in Las Vegas on Sept. 20, 2018. The Justice Department is seeking communications between the former president’s 2020 election campaign and election officials in Clark County. (Image: ABC News)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is conducting an inquiry into the former president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election that went in favor of President Joe Biden. The federal law enforcement agency’s subpoena requests any and all communication involving the Trump campaign and Clark County election officers.

For the period June 1, 2020, through Jan. 20, 2021, produce any and all communications in any form to, from, or involving Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. (hereinafter, ‘the Trump Campaign’), Donald J. Trump, or any employee or agent of, or attorney for, the Trump Campaign, or any records or documents that record, summarize, transcribe, annotate, or reflect any such communications,” the subpoena stated.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last month appointed Jack Smith, a former career DOJ prosecutor, to serve as special counsel to oversee the department’s criminal investigations. The DOJ is looking into whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election.

Smith is also spearheading the agency’s probe into the FBI’s handling of its August 2022 raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fl.

Sin City Election Scandal

Trump was hoping to turn Nevada red after failing to win the perennial swing state in 2016.

Nevada going for Democrat Hillary Clinton was the first time in 10 years that Nevada voters got a presidential election wrong. But Nevada got it right in 2020, as Biden went on to oust Trump from the White House.

Political bettors had Biden favored ahead of Election Day. But as the first batches of votes were counted, Trump pulled ahead in several key states, including Nevada, which turned the betting odds strongly in the incumbent’s favor.

However, when all the votes were tallied, Biden won Nevada with about 33,600 more votes than Trump. The Republican, however, won 15 of the 17 counties in Nevada. The two exceptions were Nevada’s two most populated counties — Clark and Washoe.

As the final votes continued to trickle in days after Election Day, largely in Biden’s favor, an unraveling Trump was reportedly in direct communication with Clark County election supervisors. On November 17, the Trump campaign asked a state judge to nullify Biden’s 33,596-vote margin and declare Trump the winner of the state and award him Nevada’s six electors.

The Nevada Supreme Court, however, on November 24 certified Biden as the winner of Nevada. The scandal didn’t end there.

As Nevada’s six electors gathered via zoom to cast their ballots for Biden, the Nevada Republican Party held a signing ceremony in Carson City where fake elector certificates were signed showing Trump winning Nevada. The falsified documents were submitted to Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, Congress, and the US National Archives.

Trump’s 2024 Odds

The ongoing legal drama surrounding the former president, paired with a lackluster 2022 midterms performance by his party, has rendered Trump’s 2024 odds long.

PredictIt bettors have Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as the betting front-runner to win the GOP’s nomination for the 2024 election. Trump’s odds suggest he has only a 29% chance of being on the Republican ticket in two years.

Biden is currently the 2024 favorite, PredictIt bettors giving the 80-year-old a 33% chance of winning a second term in the Oval Office.