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Pennsylvania Court Won't Block Entire Election 'Investigation' Subpoena

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania court declined Monday to block an entire subpoena to state election officials in what Republican state lawmakers call a "forensic investigation" of 2020′s presidential election, fueled by former President Donald Trump's baseless claims that Democrats stole the election.

But the statewide Commonwealth Court that issued the seven-page order also did not appear to immediately greenlight the release of some information that Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro challenged as being protected by privacy laws.

In the unsigned order, the court said state officials did not persuade it that the subpoena issued in September by a Republican-controlled Senate committee had no legitimate legislative purpose.

A five-judge panel of the court heard more than two hours of arguments last month.

The subpoena had requested a 17 categories of records, much of it public, but also information that the state attorney general's office said is protected by privacy laws, namely the partial Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers of roughly 9 million registered voters and details about election systems that is barred from public disclosure by federal law.

On the information about election systems, the court wrote that there is a "substantial factual question surrounding the federal protection requirements and the capability of the Senate Committee's contracted vendor, Envoy Sage, LLC, to protect the infrastructure information."

(Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)

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