Arizona Senate turns over 2020 Maricopa County election audit records to FBI

The Arizona Senate turned over election records related to its widely-discredited review of Maricopa County’s 2020 election to the FBI last week.

“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,” Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) wrote on social media. “The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.”

He made the statement on social media after a report by the right-leaning Just the News website that relied on anonymous sources circulated online suggesting federal agents seized voting records from Maricopa County election officials.

Republican Congressman Abe Hamadeh shared those reports on social media, claiming they were related to alleged issues he flagged in the 2024 election cycle.

“Part of the ongoing pattern of disastrous elections in State 48,” Hamadeh wrote. “The FBI has now seized election records in its expanding probe.”

However, there is no indication the federal agents seized any records related to the 2024 election or made direct contact with county election officials.

Both the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Recorder’s Office, who jointly administer the county’s elections, have not received subpoenas for voting records.

“Maricopa County runs elections in accordance with the law. We have not received a subpoena at this time but will cooperate if that were to occur,” Jason Berry, a spokesman for the Board of Supervisors, said.

Berry confirmed the county has destroyed ballots from the 2020 election in compliance with a state law requiring ballots to be destroyed after two years.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office also confirmed it did not receive a subpoena and referred questions to the Senate president.

A spokesman for Hamadeh did not respond to questions about whether the FBI had briefed him on efforts to seize voting records in Maricopa County or if he was simply relying on the Just the news report he shared on social media.

As of Monday afternoon, Petersen, the Senate president, was the only Arizona official confirmed to have turned over election-related records.

The Republican-led Senate conducted its so-called audit in response to unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud spread by President Donald Trump and his allies after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Petersen, then chair of the Senate’s judiciary committee, oversaw the audit.

The review was conducted by the Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based company with ties to Trump that had no experience in election audits. The Senate’s audit, which experts criticized as a disinformation exercise, ultimately found former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Maricopa County in 20020.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, criticized Petersen and the Trump administration for attempting to rehash the 2020 election in Maricopa County.

“The 2020 General Election in Arizona has been exhaustively reviewed,” she said in a statement. “Multiple audits, court proceedings, and independent investigations — including those pursued by members of the same political party of the president — found no evidence of fraud sufficient to alter the outcome. These findings are not in dispute by any credible authority. The election results were certified, litigated, and affirmed.”

Mayes said former Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich spent “over 10,000 hours” investigating claims and found no evidence of widespread fraud.

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

Petersen is running for the Republican nomination for Arizona attorney general.