Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to abandon its investigation into the state’s 2020 presidential election.
Shortly after then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem visited Arizona in February to make unsubstantiated claims about the state’s elections, The Atlantic broke the news that the agency was investigating the election.
Kelly and Gallego said that investigation is a waste of time and resources and that Homeland Security Investigations, the division of DHS overseeing the operation, should be focused on other areas.
“As an investigative branch, HSI is tasked with investigating crimes like drug trafficking, human smuggling, and child exploitation,” the senators wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Thursday. “Investigating unfounded claims of voter fraud is not part of the agency’s mission and wastes valuable skills that should be used to keep Americans safe.”
Votebeat reported that emails between HSI and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office suggested the investigation could focus on debunked claims that widespread election fraud influenced the outcome of the 2020 election.
Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office confirmed that she turned over public records to HSI, including a report by her predecessor, Mark Brnovich, reviewing the Arizona Senate’s flawed review of that election.
Kelly and Gallego pointed out that the over a dozen court cases, post-election audits and the Arizona Senate’s own review also concluded the election was fair.
And they accused DHS of engaging in a “sham investigation” to rehash President Trump’s false claims that fraud led to his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
“It is clear that this sham investigation is just another attempt to attack, harass, intimidate, and coerce election officials in Arizona, to suppress the right to vote of Arizonans, and to call into question the integrity of Arizona’s electoral system, which has consistently proven to be secure,” the senators wrote.
Gallego and Kelly asked DHS to provide them a litany of records related to the investigation, including all communications with Arizona officials and the number of agents assigned to the inquiry.
They also want to know what investigations those agents were assigned to before being redirected to the election investigation, “including those related to child exploitation, cyber intrusions, human trafficking, drug smuggling, domestic extremism, terrorism financing and violent crime.”
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