Federal authorities have obtained documents tied to the 2020 election in Arizona after issuing a subpoena to the Arizona Senate requesting material associated with a Republican-run audit of the vote in Maricopa County, the state senate president said on Monday.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, signaled the transfer on social media, writing: "The FBI has the records." Petersen said the agency had subpoenaed the Senate last week for material connected to the audit of Maricopa County, the state's most populous county.
The collection of records in Arizona represents the latest instance in which federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been used to gather documents tied to allegations of irregularities in the 2020 election. Those allegations have repeatedly been dismissed by courts and by multiple audits, which found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
It is not yet clear what specific criminal violations the FBI may be examining, and the agency had not immediately provided comment when asked. A spokesperson for Petersen declined to provide further details about his social media post.
The Arizona action follows a separate, court-approved search earlier this year in Georgia, where the FBI seized 2020 ballots from a county elections center. In that case, Fulton County has filed a lawsuit seeking the return of the seized material, arguing the search violated the U.S. Constitution and relied on allegations that have been widely discredited.
In Arizona, the audit of Maricopa County conducted in 2021 by Republican allies of former President Donald Trump largely reaffirmed the original 2020 results, reporting a slightly higher total for Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate. Biden's margin in Maricopa County contributed to his statewide victory over Trump.
Although the Maricopa audit reiterated the county's outcome, it also put forward several claims of irregularities. County election officials strongly disputed those claims.
"What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry," Arizona State Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said in a statement. "It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies."
Federal inquiries into Georgia and Arizona come as former President Trump has publicly discussed the prospect of the federal government taking control of elections in unspecified parts of the country. Trump has also designated a lawyer, Kurt Olsen, who supported the "Stop the Steal" effort to overturn the 2020 election results, to oversee a renewed review of the 2020 vote.
At this stage, investigators have not disclosed the precise scope or targets of the Arizona records request, and observers are left to note the parallel actions in multiple battleground states without definitive public information on investigative aims. The broader pattern of federal activity in states where the 2020 outcome was contested has prompted pushback from state officials who characterize the moves in political terms.
As these inquiries progress, the public record remains limited to official statements about the seizure of material and legal filings such as the Fulton County lawsuit in Georgia. Further details about the files obtained from Arizona or any follow-on actions by investigators have not been made public.