Trump faces wider inquiry on vote fixing

A federal investigator has widened his inquiry into election interference by Donald Trump in 2020 in a fresh blow to the former president after his Senate candidate in Georgia was defeated.

Jack Smith, the special counsel and a former war crimes judge, issued subpoenas to officials in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin for all their communications with Trump over a scheme to change the outcome of the 2020 election.

In Georgia, Herschel Walker, a novice candidate chosen by Trump, was rejected in the final race of the midterm elections to give Democrats a 51 to 49 majority in the US Senate. Walker delivered a concession speech, unlike Trump, in which he urged his supporters to ‘‘continue to believe in the constitution and ... our elected officials’’.

Trump has refused to concede the 2020 election, and called for the ‘‘termination’’ of the US constitution so he could become president again.

Smith was brought back from The Hague to lead two investigations into Trump – one on the retention of ‘‘classified documents and other presidential records’’ and another into ‘‘whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with a transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election’’.

He appears to be looking wider than the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 last year, by asking for communications between state officials and Trump aides, including Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, his campaign manager Bill Stepien and his adviser Boris Epshteyn.

Smith does not appear to have contacted Georgia, where the district attorney in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, is holding a separate investigation into the activities of Trump and his allies over the 2020 election.

Voters on Wednesday backed Raphael Warnock, a Baptist pastor, to retain his Senate seat for the Democrats by 51.4% to 48.6%, with a few votes still to be counted.

Walker’s defeat is another flop by a novice candidate promoted by Trump, after several other fumbles in Senate seats and races to be governor.