WASHINGTON — Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was interviewed last week by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
This conversation, which was virtual, was taped and on the record, as a follow-up to previous conversations she and the state Bureau of Elections had with committee investigators to provide background information, Benson spokeswoman Tracy Wimmer said.
The interview comes ahead of the Democrat-led committee's first public hearings, which are set to begin Thursday night and run through next week on Capitol Hill, focused on the findings of its 11-month investigation.
Lawmakers plan to have witnesses testify, including a documentary filmmaker who videotaped the Capitol attack and a Capitol Police officer who was injured in the melee, according to the Associated Press.
The panel has not announced a full list of witnesses for Thursday's hearing, but Benson, a Detroit Democrat, has not been asked to testify, Wimmer said.
The House select committee has said it's seeking information about attempts in several states to overturn the results of the 2020 election by allies of former President Donald Trump.
Benson was previously interviewed by committee investigators — the last time in November, Wimmer said. The panel has also interviewed Chris Thomas, a former state elections director who advised Detroit's election operation in the November 2020 election.
Benson's office also provided documents to the committee in December and January, including those regarding the slate of "fake" Republican electors in Michigan.
In January, the committee issued subpoenas to two of the 16 Michigan Republicans — Kathy Berden and Mayra Rodriguez — who signed and submitted a false certificate that claimed Trump won the state's presidential election.
They had sent the certificate to the National Archives as part of an effort in multiple states to negate Biden's win before the country's electoral votes were counted and certified during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
Biden won Michigan's 2020 presidential election over Trump by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points.
The House select committee in February also issued a subpoena to former Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox, alleging she and others had knowledge of efforts to submit false certificates.
Cox subsequently blasted the subpoena, saying committee investigators had already subpoenaed her phone records and traveled to Livonia to interview her. She said in a February statement that the action was an "intimidation of free speech, not about investigating crimes."
"My guy lost," Cox added. "President Biden won. But that does not make raising questions about irregularities a crime. The January 6th Committee knows I don't know anything about what happened on January 6th.
"Like most Americans I was shocked as I watched at home."
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel previously referred an investigation into the fake electors' certificate to federal prosecutors, with Nessel suggesting it violated state laws against forgery.
Benson's office has also provided documents to the panel about Michigan Republicans' efforts to rush supporters to the former TCF Center, where Detroit's absentee ballots were counted after the 2020 election.
