Michigan Republican behind election probe rages at Jan. 6 testimony request: “I don’t work for you!”

On Thursday, The Detroit News reported that Michigan state Sen. Ed McBroom, who ran a state investigation disproving many Trump supporters’ election fraud claims in the state, is publicly refusing to come before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

McBroom has answered questions submitted by the committee, according to the report — but draws the line at giving public testimony.

“In a speech on the Senate floor, McBroom of Vulcan said the U.S. House’s Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol had “demanded” he participate in a public hearing under oath,” said the report. “‘Every member of this body should take offense to this notion that we should be expected to present our work to the federal government,’ McBroom told his Senate colleagues Thursday morning. ‘I don’t work for you,’ the senator added, referring to the U.S. Congress. ‘I work for and only answer to the Michigan Senate and the people of the sovereign state of Michigan.'”

“McBroom is chairman of the Senate Oversight Committee, which released a report in June 2021, finding ‘no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud’ in the 2020 presidential election,” noted the report. “The panel’s findings refuted many unproven claims that were advanced by supporters of former President Donald Trump to try to discount the election’s result in the battleground state. Democrat Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes or nearly 3 percentage points.”

McBroom is one of many Republicans in Michigan sought by the committee for information. “In February 2020, the committee issued a subpoena to former Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox,” noted the report. “A month earlier, 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 claiming to be the state’s official presidential electors.”

Michigan has been the focus of many Republicans’ efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Rudy Giuliani brought Mellissa Carone, a controversial “star witness” to alleged voter fraud, to testify publicly, which resulted in humiliation. Carone was later booted off the ballot in her bid for state Senate.