FBI Demands Election Documents in Arizona, Broadening 2020 Investigation

Federal authorities have taken a significant step in their investigation of the 2020 election by obtaining records from Arizona, as confirmed by the state's Senate President on Monday.

“I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County,” Warren Petersen stated in a post on X. “The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.”

Despite requests for comment, the FBI has remained silent on the matter.

Petersen's announcement followed a post from President Donald Trump on Truth Social, which referenced a report claiming that the FBI was conducting a covert investigation into the 2020 election in Arizona.

This development indicates that the FBI's inquiry into the election—disputed by Trump, who falsely asserts he won—now extends beyond Fulton County, Georgia. Earlier this year, the FBI conducted a raid at an elections hub in Fulton County, seeking records and ballots. Both Fulton and Maricopa counties are pivotal Democratic strongholds in critical battleground states.

However, unlike Fulton County, Maricopa County's 2020 ballots were destroyed in compliance with state records retention laws.

The Maricopa County Elections Department stated they had not yet received a subpoena but would cooperate if one were issued.

Petersen's social media remarks suggest that the FBI is interested in records from a controversial audit conducted by Cyber Ninjas, an outside group hired by the Republican-led state Senate to perform what they termed an “audit” of the 2020 election, including a hand-count of ballots. Petersen oversaw this audit alongside Karen Fann, who was Senate president at that time.

The audit, rife with conspiracy theories, ultimately confirmed that President Joe Biden won Arizona. The company behind the review ceased operations amid a costly public records dispute with The Arizona Republic.

Documents from this litigation revealed significant flaws in the investigation and underscored how conspiracy theories influenced its findings.

“Looks like basically our numbers are screwy,” Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan texted on September 13, 2021, just days before presenting their report to the state Senate.

One document indicated plans to utilize microscope cameras and UV light on allegedly suspicious ballots, although experts noted that more pressing issues, such as handling ballots with multiple votes for a single office, were overlooked.

In January 2022, Maricopa County's election department released a comprehensive rebuttal to the audit's findings.

“The November 2020 General Election was administered with integrity and the results were accurate and reliable,” the report asserted. “This has been proven through statutorily required accuracy tests, court cases, hand counts performed by political parties, and post-election audits.”

The report further criticized the audit for containing “faulty analysis, inaccurate claims, misleading conclusions, and a lack of understanding of federal and state election laws.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes condemned the investigation in a statement.

“What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry. It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies," she remarked.

Ken Bennett, former Republican secretary of state in Arizona and liaison to the audit, mentioned he had not received a subpoena but retained records from the audit at his residence.

"If the FBI is looking for something other than the election being essentially done accurately in Maricopa County, then yes, they're going to be disappointed," he stated. "We found that Biden won Maricopa by 40,300 not 40,000."

Bennett also revealed that major donors funding the audit sought evidence of fraud in Arizona to justify similar investigations in other states. According to reports, over $5 million was funneled into the audit by groups promoting voter fraud claims.

The America Project, led by former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, contributed $3.25 million to Cyber Ninjas, while Sidney Powell's Defending the Republic invested $550,000. Additionally, nearly $1 million was provided by a group associated with Michael Flynn, former national security adviser under Trump.

"It's people paying to support an effort that they want a specific result from," Bennett explained. "I remember Doug telling me — oh, these guys want us to find something here because then we're going to go to five other states and do the same thing."