2 years ago
The Jan. 6 select committee received materials this week from Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano — and with them, perhaps, a new dilemma.
Mastriano's previously unreported cooperation with the Capitol attack probe came in the form of a submission, obtained by POLITICO, that includes documents about his work to arrange buses that carried pro-Trump protesters to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
But when the select committee subpoenaed Mastriano, it specifically said he didn’t need to send any materials related to official actions in his current position as a Pennsylvania state senator. Given that sizable carve-out, the vast majority of the materials Mastriano sent to the committee are public social media posts.
This leaves the committee with a tough choice: Does it accept the limited production from Mastriano, a Donald Trump stalwart who embraced the former president’s unsuccessful quest to de-certify the 2020 election, or fight for more?
A letter from Mastriano’s lawyer to the committee, dated May 31, includes a link to the documents.
Reached for comment, Mastriano lawyer Tim Parlatore said the gubernatorial candidate has turned over everything the Jan. 6 panel asked for.
“Sen. Mastriano has nothing to hide and has provided all responsive documents and will be sitting for a voluntary interview as the committee has agreed to forego a formal deposition for him,” he said.
Receipts provided to the Jan. 6 panel confirm that Mastriano’s campaign committee, Friends of Doug Mastriano, paid $3,354 to a charter bus company in late December 2020, as the progressive news site The American Independent has noted.
Another document in the tranche appears to be a passenger manifest indicating Mastriano’s campaign sold more than 130 tickets to Washington to join the “Stop the Steal” protests that later metastasized into a siege on the Capitol.
Mastriano advertised seats for sale on Facebook, according to the local news station WHYY, and himself was outside the Capitol building on Jan. 6. Campaign finance disclosure records detailed by WHYY previously showed his campaign paid for buses.
In the weeks after Election Day 2020, Mastriano energetically supported Trump’s efforts to stave off certification of the election results. He fired off a host of letters to top lawmakers and to the Justice Department calling on them to join the then-president’s ill-fated efforts.
Those letters, which Mastriano tweeted out at the time, are included in the documents he gave the committee. He also worked on efforts to send a slate of “alternate electors” to Washington — part of a nationwide undertaking that is reportedly drawing scrutiny from DOJ.
On Nov. 25, 2020, Mastriano helped host an event in Gettysburg, Pa., that was billed as a hearing on election “issues and irregularities.” Trump ally Rudy Giuliani — then helping helm the defeated president’s legal efforts to contest the results — headlined the gathering. Trump dialed into it. Mastriano traveled to the White House the next week for a meeting with Trump, CNN reported, but had to leave because he tested positive for Covid.
In the months since then, the alliance between the three men stayed intact.
Mastriano confirmed in May 2021 that Giuliani had agreed to host a fundraiser for him, according to a May 5 report from local station ABC 27. A year later, last month, Trump endorsed Mastriano in the crowded Republican primary for Pennsylvania governor.
“There is no one in Pennsylvania who has done more, or fought harder, for Election Integrity than State Senator Doug Mastriano,” the former president said in a statement announcing the endorsement.
In March, Mastriano held an event with MyPillow CEO and election fraud conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell in Gettysburg. As they entered that event, attendees signed a petition seeking to de-certify the state’s 2020 election results, according to PennLive.
Mastriano trounced the competition in the May Republican gubernatorial primary, garnering more than twice as many votes as the runner-up. His victory sparked frustration among some state party members who see him as too far-right to beat Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro in the swing state.
Meanwhile, Mastriano is not the only ascendant Republican to face a select committee subpoena as Jan. 6 investigators prepare for weeks of multiple public hearings. Last month, the panel subpoenaed five House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the likely next speaker if the GOP flips the chamber this fall.
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