Kathy Berden and friend (Photo: Facebook)
The Jan. 6 committee in Congress on Friday subpoenaed 14 central players from seven states, including two Michigan women, who tried to submit false Republican electors for Donald Trump a month after he lost in 2020.
Kathy Berden of Sanilac County and Mayra Rodriguez of Grosse Pointe Farms are among those subpoenaed to turn over documents by Feb. 11 and be questioned under oath Feb. 22 for a legal deposition. They and 14 others in Michigan, including state party co-chair Meshawn Madock of Oakland County, signed a document falsely claiming a Trump's victory in the state where Joe Biden won by 154,188 votes.
Berden, who owns a Sanilac County farm with her husband and children, has been a National Republican Commmittee member since 2015. Rodriguez lost a Wayne County state House race by over 19,000 votes on the same day as Trump's defeat.
“The Select Committee is seeking information about attempts in multiple states to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the planning and coordination of efforts to send false slates of electors to the National Archives," says its chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss.
Mayra Rodriguez of Grosse Pointe Farms
The committee says in a statement that people met on Dec. 14, 2020 in seven states that Biden won, and submitted bogus slates of Electoral-College votes for former President Trump.
"The so-called alternate electors from those states then transmitted the purported Electoral-College certificates to Congress, which multiple people advising former President Trump or his campaign used to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the Joint Session of Congress on January 6th, 2021," the release adds.
The U.S. Justice Department said this week that it's investigating the false certificates.
