Trump Faces Nightmare Scenario as Top Republicans Cooperate with Jack Smith

Former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers has become the latest Republican to confirm they were interviewed as part of the federal investigation into the attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Bowers, who previously testified to the January 6 House Select Committee that Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called him to discuss a plan to appoint fake electoral officials to falsely declare that the former president beat Joe Biden in several states, told CNN that he has now spoken to the FBI as part of the probe.

"I am hesitant to talk about any subpoenas, etc. But I have been interviewed by the FBI," Bowers said when asked whether he had been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith's office, adding he spoke to investigators "a few months ago."

"I offered them nothing new. They seemed to have a good grasp on all of the testimony that I had given," Bowers told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "They were very aware of the January 6th committee testimony that I gave. There may have been something that I said that was of interest. But I don't remember anything standing out that had not been mentioned before."

Rusty Bowers testifies during a hearing about the January 6 attack in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2022. Bowers said he spoke with the FBI in the criminal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Doug Mills / POOL / AFP/Getty Images

Bowers, who was censured by Arizona's Republican Party last year because of his January 6 testimony, is believed to be the highest-ranking Republican official to have spoken with federal investigators in Smith's probe about his conversations with Trump and his inner circle in the wake of the 2020 election.

Christine Adams, a former federal prosecutor and current partner with Adams, Duerk & Kamenstein, told Newsweek that Bowers speaking with the FBI shows that federal prosecutors are conducting a "thorough and careful investigation" involving people across several states as part of the 2020 election inquiry.

"Federal investigators have gained the cooperation of former top GOP officials in their investigation, including Bowers and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which undercuts any assertions that the investigation is a partisan witch hunt," Adams said.

"Investigators are honing in on potentially incriminating conduct by Trump and his lawyers in pressuring GOP members to participate in their efforts to block the election result."

In a December 2020 news release, Bowers revealed how Trump and his team came forward with the "breathtaking" request to overturn the election results, which he fought against.

"As a conservative Republican, I don't like the results of the presidential election," Bowers said. "I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election."

In June 2022, Bowers testified to the January 6 committee that Trump and Giuliani called him to discuss the fake electoral scheme and that Giuliani claimed he had evidence of undocumented immigrants or dead people having voted in the 2020 election. Bowers said that Giuliani was unable to provide evidence to justify recalling the key swing state's presidential electors.

"In my recollection, he said, 'We have lots of theories, we just don't have the evidence,'" Bowers told the panel.

Giuliani recently voluntarily answered questions from federal prosecutors regarding an alleged plot to create a fake group of electors who would falsely declare that Trump had beaten Biden in several key swing states the Republican had actually lost in 2020.

Bowers said during his CNN interview that it appears the 2020 election probe is quite broad, based on the questions he was asked by investigators.

"There is a lot of information about attorneys that work with them. About Mr. Giuliani that made the calls and visited us. And other members of his team, who they were, when the meetings were, what was discussed in those meetings or in that meeting," Bowers said.

"And so I presume that all of them are involved. How that shakes out as the threshold evidence? I don't know. I just dabble with a paintbrush."