Mastriano Holds Briefing With Pennsylvania Senate Republicans on Potential Election Audit Plan

Trump ally and Pennsylvania GOP State Senator Doug Mastriano has been busy since we reported at the beginning of last month that he called for an Arizona style audit of the 2020 presidential election.

According to the Associated Press, Mastriano, who chairs the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee, led a private briefing Wednesday for Republican senators on his potential plan.

Mastriano could theoretically issue subpoenas to counties with a majority vote of his committee and counties like the Democratic bastions of Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, and especially Philadelphia, where Joe Biden received about 20,000 more votes than Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton did in 2016. could be prime targets.

In Philadelphia, the final vote tally was not declared until two weeks after the election.

A response letter also obtained by the news outlet showed that Mastriano also solicited legal advice from a Philadelphia-based law firm about the Senate Republican caucus using private money to finance consultants and lawyers.

The AP reported:

In the letter, the law firm discussed the legality of using money from a private, nonprofit organization “to pay expenses for vendors, including a consultant and counsel” as part of an “oversight investigation” of the 2020 election led by the low-profile committee that Mastriano chairs.

“While we cannot predict how the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would decide the issue, in our opinion, to a reasonable degree of legal certainty, Pennsylvania law does not prohibit the Caucus or Committee from accepting or benefiting from such financial support,” lawyer Bruce S. Marks wrote.

The letter said “the purpose of the investigation is to develop legislation which will enhance voter participation and election integrity.”

Mastriano did not return phone calls. In a phone call Friday, Marks — who did legal work for the Trump campaign after the 2020 election — confirmed he wrote the letter, but otherwise declined comment.

Previously, we reported:

A group of Republican lawmakers from Pennsylvania has called for an audit of the 2020 presidential election in their state. On Wednesday, the delegation traveled to Arizona and received a briefing concerning the process being used to ensure the security, transparency, and accuracy of the Maricopa County audit.

Following the briefing, the state lawmakers took a tour of the audit site at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum to get more information on the logistics involved.

The Pennsylvania legislators in attendance were State Senator Doug Mastriano, State Senator Chris Dush, and State Rep. Rob Kauffman.

In a Twitter thread on Thursday, AZ State Senator Wendy Rogers explained the process and scope of the Maricopa County audit that the representatives from Pennsylvania were briefed on. She concluded, “Arizona welcomes ALL states to adopt this gold-standard of a process to ensure free and fair elections for 2022.”

Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano, however, spoke for many Americans who support conducting an audit when he says, “I don’t know why in 2021, this is not more commonplace, where if people have issues they can have their answers.”

The Pennsylvania delegation was impressed with the audit model that is being used in Arizona. When asked if Pennsylvania will replicate the process, Mastriano answered, “We need to do an audit and this is the model.”