Justice Dept. issues 40 subpoenas in a week, expanding Jan. 6 inquiry

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials have seized the phones of two top advisers to former President Donald Trump and blanketed his aides with about 40 subpoenas in a substantial escalation of the investigation into his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, people familiar with the inquiry said Monday.

The seizure of the phones, coupled with a widening effort to obtain information from those around Trump after the 2020 election, represent some of the most aggressive steps the department has taken thus far in its criminal investigation into the actions that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

The extent of the investigation has come into focus in recent days, even though it has often been overshadowed by the government’s legal clash with Trump and his lawyers over a separate inquiry into the handling of presidential records, including highly classified materials, the former president kept at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida.