Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who once helped organize charter buses to ferry former president Donald Trump’s supporters to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, is cooperating with investigators probing the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Politico was first to report the development Thursday, citing a letter obtained from Mastriano’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, responding to the committee’s subpoena that was delivered in March. The committee first issued a letter to Mastriano that the subpoena was forthcoming in February.
Between comments to Daily Kos that almost exclusively centered on his own opinions about the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation overall and its chairman, Bennie Thompson, Parlatore told Daily Kos Friday that Mastriano is willing to cooperate with the investigation because “he has nothing to hide.”
“He has done nothing wrong, he has nothing to hide and he was happy to meet with the FBI and cooperate and provide all of the information he had,” Parlatore said.
He added: “The bottom line here is this committee is not conducting an investigation. This is just political theater and Sen. Mastriano has nothing to hide, that’s why he’s provided documents and will meet whenever they schedule a meeting. But the reality is, as with all of these witnesses, this is just a fishing expedition; what they’re hoping for is they want Trump supporters to not comply so they can have this appearance of non-compliance.”
The committee has interviewed more than 1,000 individuals since its probe began and witnesses have overwhelmingly complied. The panel has publicly subpoenaed no less than 100 people and investigators have received more than 10,000 pages of documents, securing many records through voluntary cooperation or through court rulings that recognized the committee’s legitimacy as a legislative and investigatory body.
Public hearings kick off June 9.
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Mastriano is not charged with any crimes and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The FBI interview last year was sparked, reportedly, when photos of Mastriano in Washington on Jan. 6 began to circulate online.
Former Pennsylvania Rick Saccone posted photos and videos of himself on Facebook on Jan. 6 from Washington including one photo with Mastriano.
In one post from Saccone at 4:34 PM, the former Republican lawmaker wrote: “We are storming the Capitol. Our vanguard has broken thru the barricades. We will save this nation. Are u with me?” [Abbreviation original]
After the insurrection at the Capitol died down on Jan. 6, Mastriano released a statement condemning the violence as “unacceptable and un-American.” Later that same day, according to the Pittsburgh City Paper, Mastriano issued a statement saying that he and his wife left the rally in D.C. when “it was apparent this was no longer a peaceful protest.”
“As a military veteran and retired colonel, I do not nor would I ever condone the violence we saw today. I join with all patriotic Americans in condemning what occurred in the Capitol. My position on lawlessness is equally as clear. When it was apparent that this was no longer a peaceful protest, my wife and I left the area and made our way out of the area. At no point did we enter the Capitol building, walk on the Capitol steps or go beyond police lines."
Online sleuths who have helped identify various Jan. 6 defendants for authorities, also turned up a video last August that raised questions about Mastriano’s accounting of the events that day, including whether or not he breached any restricted area.
The materials Mastriano has now provided to the committee include records tied to the busses he arranged for Trump’s rally on Jan. 6 as well as a letter he submitted to the DOJ littered with bunk claims of fraud in the 2020 election, CNN reported.
The buses were charged to his state senate campaign in December 2020 and totaled approximately $3,354. Mastriano also posted a Facebook event that December selling tickets for seats on the bus, according to the American Independent.
Mastriano ardently defended Trump’s baseless election fraud conspiracy theories and was in regular contact with Trump” as the 45th president pushed to overturn his defeat to now President Joe Biden. The Trump ally was also scheduled to speak at the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on Jan. 6.
Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, speaks to supporters of President Donald Trump as they demonstrate outside the Pennsylvania State Capitol, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in Harrisburg, Pa., after Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump to become 46th president of the United States.
The gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania regularly promoted election fraud conspiracy theory and called for “alternate” electors for Trump to be installed in Pennsylvania, even going so far as sponsoring a resolution that would have undone the certification altogether, overturned existing state election laws, and authorized the GOP-dominated state legislature to select electors of their choice. That resolution ultimately failed to pass.
The Jan. 6 committee also wanted to question Mastriano about his visit to Arizona in November 2021 when he and two other Pennsylvania lawmakers attended a review of an election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. That audit (and others) ultimately determined there were no abnormalities in ballot tabulations.
Other documents Mastriano has provided to the committee, per the letter from his attorney, include his social media posts and other communications.
But those were already public.
When the Jan. 6 committee made its request to the Pennsylvania Republican, as noted by Politico, it “specifically said he didn’t need to send any materials related to official actions” he undertook as a state senator at that time.
Whether the committee will now push for other documents remains to be seen. A spokesman for the probe declined to comment Friday.
The far-right election denier won the GOP’s nomination for the gubernatorial spot in Pennsylvania just two weeks ago.
He took extreme anti-choice positions on abortion during primary debates in April, including saying that he didn't want to “give way for exceptions” to abortion, i.e. rape, incest, or if the life of the pregnant person was under threat.
As the primary grew closer, however, Mastriano removed once highly-visible language from his website that opposed abortion, including a link that took visitors to his page to a site that summed up abortion as “unimaginable brutality.”
The scrubbing of his site was reported by The American Independent.
Last month, Mastriano told reporters at New Castle News that “babies deserve a right to life whether it is conceived in incest, rape, or whether there are concerns otherwise for the mom.”
