The US department of justice has served subpoenas on about 40 people in the orbit of former president Donald Trump in a significant intensification of its investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The New York Times on Monday also reported that mobile phones belonging to two senior advisers to Mr Trump were also seized.
The move to serve subpoenas over recent days is aimed at securing information and documents in relation to the origins of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th last year by supporters of Mr Trump and other alleged attempts to delay or prevent the transfer of power to Joe Biden.
It emerged last week the department of justice was also looking at how money was raised and spent by Mr Trump’s political action committee after the November 2020 election.
It is also examining efforts to manipulate the US electoral college system for determining the presidency by attempts to submit fake alternative electors to support Mr Trump in states the former president had actually lost.
The new grand jury subpoenas are separate to the investigation being carried out by the department of justice into the handling of classified documents that were found at Mr Trump’s club and residence in Florida last month.
On Monday the department of justice said in a court filing it would be open to the appointment of a judge put forward by Mr Trump’s legal team to the role of special master — an independent assessor who would review the material taken by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s home in Palm Beach.
The New York Times said US government agents with court-authorised search warrants had seized phones last week from Boris Epshteyn, an in-house lawyer who helped co-ordinate Mr Trump’s legal efforts and Mike Roman, a campaign strategist who was the director of election day operations for Mr Trump’s campaign in 2020.
Separately the congressional committee investigating the January 6th attack on the US Capitol is expected to meet in person on Tuesday to consider whether they should seek evidence from Mr Trump or his former vice president, Mike Pence.
