FBI Subpoenas Arizona Senate for 2020 Election Records

A federal grand jury has issued a subpoena to the Arizona State Senate for records related to its widely criticized review of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County. Senate President Warren Petersen confirmed on Monday that the legislature had received and complied with the subpoena.

Petersen stated on X, 'Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County. The FBI has the records.' This development appears to be part of a broader investigation into the 2020 election results by the Trump administration.

The review, conducted in 2021 by Republicans who controlled the Arizona State Senate, included a hand count of all 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County. The effort was widely criticized for its methodology and received more than $5.7 million in outside funding, including support from prominent election deniers Patrick Byrne and Michael Flynn.

Despite initial claims of suspicious activities, the review ultimately affirmed Joe Biden’s win in Maricopa County. A hand recount even found a net gain of votes for Biden. Cyber Ninjas, the private firm hired to conduct the review, had no prior experience in elections and its findings were largely debunked by Maricopa County officials and the attorney general’s office.

Kris Mayes, the Democrat who was elected Arizona Attorney General in 2022, criticized Petersen for spreading false stories of election fraud. She stated that the 2020 election results in Arizona were 'certified, litigated, and affirmed.' The FBI has not yet responded to requests for comment.

According to Fox News, this subpoena marks the second publicly confirmed jurisdiction where the Department of Justice is investigating matters related to the 2020 election. Multiple U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News that the DOJ is looking at a large tranche of Arizona data from 2020 and 2024.

The FBI in January seized ballots and other records from Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, after the Justice Department sought a search warrant from a judge. The search warrant affidavit showed that the request relied on years-old claims, many of which had been thoroughly investigated and found to have no connection to widespread fraud.

Federal officials took different routes to obtain election records in the two states. The Georgia case involved a judicially-approved search warrant that required the FBI to articulate grounds that probable cause exists to believe a crime was committed. In Arizona, the FBI relied on subpoenas, a law enforcement maneuver that does not require judicial sign-off or for prosecutors to assert that there’s probable cause of a crime.

The investigations into the 2020 election come as the Justice Department has clashed with a number of states, including some controlled by Republicans, over access to detailed voter data that includes names, dates of birth, addresses and partial Social Security numbers. Election officials have expressed concerns that providing the information would violate both state and federal data privacy laws, and that it could be used to remove people from state voter rolls.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes suggested that at least some Maricopa County voter files were among the records Petersen gave the FBI. In a statement Monday, Fontes said his office was considering legal options 'to secure personal voter information in the 2020 data that was shared.'