Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is among those to have been questioned by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, a new report from The Washington Post lays out. That report outlines the questioning of Parscale as part of efforts by the panel to dive into financial issues related to the riot and its surrounding circumstances. As the Post explains, investigators are looking at “whether the Trump campaign, its affiliated super PACs, the Republican National Committee and protest organizers knowingly used false claims that the election was stolen to dupe donors and raise large sums of cash.” This questioning on finances is meant to sketch out whether or how campaign finance laws should be reformed — and whether criminal referrals should be sent to the Justice Department for wire fraud because of fundraising on knowingly false claims of election mishandling.
The Select Committee demands info on efforts to send false "alternate electors" and otherwise interfere with election certification.
The Select Committee issued 6 subpoenas:
•Michael A. Roman
•Gary Michael Brown
•Douglas V. Mastriano
•Laura Cox
•Mark W. Finchem
•Kelli Ward— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) February 15, 2022
As the Post further explains, using the nickname for the panel’s team working on these financial questions:
‘A number of individuals from the Trump campaign, the RNC and digital firms involved with post-election fundraising practices have been cooperating with the green team. The committee recently asked questions of Gary Coby, the Trump campaign’s top digital fundraising guru, and has interviewed both campaign and RNC staff, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. They have also questioned Brad Parscale, the former Trump campaign manager, and interviewed people who worked for him.’
The Select Committee subpoenas 6 individuals who promoted false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and participated in various actions based on those false claims.
• Cleta Mitchell
• Kenneth Chesebro
• Christina Bobb
• Katherine Friess
• Kurt Olsen
• Phillip Kline— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) March 1, 2022
The committee has formally laid out that it believes that Trump may have committed criminal offenses including obstruction of an official proceeding; that official proceeding would have been the joint Congressional session for the purpose of certifying the presidential election outcome. Investigators outlined these conclusions amid a court battle with pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman, who possesses records that the committee is after on the basis of the argument that the so-called crime-fraud exemption to attorney-client privilege should apply. In other words, the ordinary standards of attorney-client privilege, theoretically applicable because of Eastman’s work as a lawyer for Trump, should be set aside because of the appearance of potential criminal activity involved in what went on, as the committee’s argument goes. As for the money concerns, although over $200 million came in from donors to a joint fundraising committee operated by Trump’s team and the national Republican Party that featured pitches for contributions to an “Election Defense Fund,” “the vast majority of money given by small-dollar donors went toward financing Trump’s leadership PAC,” the Post notes.
Whether it's judges presiding over cases they have a financial interest in or members of Congress tasked with writing legislation that could influence their stock holdings, one thing is clear: members of government should not let their financial holdings influence their actions.
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) March 9, 2022
