‘This Is News’: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Taken Aback When Former GOP Official Reveals the FBI Interviewed Him About Trump’s Post-Election Scheming 

Former Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers revealed to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the FBI questioned him about his interactions with Donald Trump’s allies as they feverishly attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The disclosure prompted a surprised Collins to note, “This is news.”

In the days and weeks after Trump lost the 2020 election, he and several of his aides initiated pressure campaigns on Republican officials in states he lost, including as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Bowers was one such official.

After those efforts failed, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in a vain attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president.

Special Counsel Jack Smith is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and has already indicted the former president on 37 counts in a separate case involving Trump’s retention of government documents.

On Wednesday’s CNN Primetime, Collins asked Bowers if he had spoken with Smith’s team as part of the probe:

COLLINS: Have you been subpoenaed by the special counsel?

BOWERS: That’s a great question. I’m hesitant to talk about any subpoenas, etc. But I have been interviewed by the FBI.

COLLINS: In the January 6th investigation? Or excuse me, in the effort to overturn the election results?

BOWERS: Correct. It was four hours of a discussion that they had with me. Very professional.

COLLINS: When was that interview?

BOWERS: It was a few–a couple of months ago, three months ago, about the same timeframe actually.

COLLINS: Can you tell us what you talked about? I mean, this is news. We did not know that you had spoken to Jack Smith’s team. Can you talk about what you offered to them – what information?

BOWERS: I offered them nothing new. They seemed to have a good grasp on all of the testimony that I’d given and all the interviews that I had given to the Arizona Republic and people from the Washington Post. They were very aware of the January 6th committee testimony that I gave. There may have been something that I said that was of interest, but I don’t remember anything standing out that had not been mentioned before.

Collins later asked about phone calls he received from Trump and his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani and asked Bowers if he has a sense of where Smith’s investigation was headed at the time of his interview earlier this year.

“I think it’s broad because there’s a lot of information about attorneys that worked with them, about Mr. Giuliani, that made the calls and visited us and other members of his team, who they were, when the meetings were, what was discussed in those meetings or in that meeting,” Bowers replied. “And so I presume that all of them are involved.”

Watch above via CNN.

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