LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former Michigan Republican Party chair Laura Cox criticized a U.S. House committee’s issuance of a subpoena for documents and her testimony related to the Capitol insurrection, saying it is seeking information already in the public realm.
Cox issued a lengthy statement late Tuesday, hours after the panel subpoenaed her and five others over efforts to send false “alternate electors” from states won by Joe Biden or to delay or interfere with certifying election results. She said she had been cooperating and the committee’s announcement “reeks of partisanship and PR stunts.”
In a letter, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson — the panel’s chair — referenced a December 2020 visit to Michigan by Rudy Giuliani, then-President Donald Trump’s lawyer. He said the committee would like to better understand how Giuliani pressured state lawmakers to disregard Biden’s 154,000-vote victory, including other statements and events Cox witnessed or in which she participated.
Cox hosted a virtual event in which Giuliani urged Republicans to pressure, even threaten, the GOP-controlled Legislature to award Michigan’s 16 electoral votes to Trump. Giuliani made baseless claims of “massive fraud, all over the country,” which he later restated to a legislative committee while pressing legislators to intervene.
In her statement reacting to the subpoena, Cox said it was her job to be partisan and to advocate for Trump’s reelection. She said she did not need Trump nor his campaign to push her to question irregular election procedures because they are not unusual.
“Nothing was hidden and all was public,” she wrote, later adding: “My guy lost. President Biden won. But that does not make raising questions about irregularities a crime.”
Cox was ordered to appear for a March 8 deposition. The panel previously subpoenaed two other Michigan Republicans, Kathy Berden and Mayra Rodriguez, to be deposed next Tuesday. They signed false certificates stating they were presidential electors.
Trump’s false claims of a stolen election fueled the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, have led to death threats against election officials and have become deeply ingrained within the GOP, with two-thirds of Republicans believing Biden’s election is illegitimate.
