FBI agents interviewed Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco at his North Fayette home on Thursday as part of an investigation into whether President Trump tried to send alternate electors in several states to Washington in an attempt to reverse the 2020 election.
DeMarco, who also is a county councilman, said that he spoke with FBI investigators Thursday morning and intends to comply with the department’s requests. He plans to turn over emails, texts and any related written correspondence to the FBI.
The FBI interview comes shortly after a U.S. House committee charged with investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol subpoenaed more than a dozen individuals who falsely attempted to declare Trump the winner of seven swing states in 2020.
Testimony has suggested that the Trump campaign and allies pressured electors in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin into declaring that they were not bound to vote for Joe Biden and instead use their Electoral College votes to back Trump, even though Biden won all seven states.
Republican electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin signed documents falsely asserting that they were “duly elected” to support Trump at a meeting in December 2020, according to testimony.
Electors in Pennsylvania, including DeMarco, also participated in the meeting by gathering in Harrisburg. However, the Pennsylvania electors signed documents that included a conditional clause that they were only to be used if a court overturned the results in Pennsylvania.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said this condition likely protected Pennsylvania electors from the same potential legal troubles that could come to the five other states.
In a statement to the Tribune-Review, DeMarco said that the interview that occurred today was routine, “clearly demonstrates that my conduct was open, above-board,” and reiterated his participation in the December 2020 meeting was predicated solely on protecting Trump’s legal rights should he prevail in court.
“That is why I agreed to serve as an elector solely in the event the president prevailed in his legal challenge to the Pennsylvania vote,” DeMarco said.
He also claimed that the FBI interview was an attempt by the Biden administration to damage local Republicans like himself.
“When we did not win in court, the matter ended,” DeMarco said.
