AZ Senate president accuses Mayes, Fontes of witness tampering and obstruction in referral to DOJ

State Senate President Warren Petersen accused Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes of illegally interfering in the Trump administration's ongoing investigation into the 2020 presidential election and referred the allegations to the Department of Justice.

“Today I referred Kris Mayes and Adrian Fontes to the Department of Justice for obstruction of justice and tampering with a witness,” Petersen wrote on social media.

Mayes and Fontes, both Democrats, criticized Petersen after he turned over records from the Senate’s so-called “audit” of the 2020 election in Maricopa County to the FBI in response to a grand jury subpoena. That flawed review, prompted by President Donald Trump’s false claims that voter fraud led to his re-election loss, still found that Democrat Joe Biden won the race.

Mayes and Fontes also expressed concern that the Senate’s massive trove of electronic records from that election included sensitive voter information that they argue is protected by federal and state privacy laws.

On March 9, the Democratic officials sent a letter to the state’s county recorders, urging them not to provide confidential voter data to federal investigators, even in response to a grand jury subpoena.

And on March 31, the Attorney General’s Office sent Petersen a letter asking for more details on what exactly he gave the FBI.

Specifically, the letter asked whether Petersen provided voter data for people whose private information is protected by state law, including those participating in the state’s Address Confidentiality program.

Petersen, who is seeking the Republican nomination for attorney general to face Mayes in November, didn’t respond to that letter.

However, he did forward the March 9 and March 31 letters to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, alleging they amounted to illegal interference into the federal inquiry — an investigation Democrats warn is simply Trump’s latest attempt to sow doubt about the results of the 2020 election.

“This request is especially concerning in light of the attorney general and secretary of state's misleading statements to county election officials that compliance with federal grand jury subpoenas requesting election related information is illegal,” Petersen wrote to U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine. “This pattern of conduct suggests an inappropriate attempt to interfere with the grand jury's ongoing investigation.”

Mayes and Fontes have long argued that the Trump administration’s attempts to gain unfettered access to Arizona’s voter data would violate federal and state privacy laws.

The attorney general is currently representing Fontes in a federal lawsuit filed by Trump’s Department of Justice seeking to force the secretary of state to turn over that information.

But Petersen argued state and local officials must comply with federal grand jury subpoenas.

“The threats of the attorney general and secretary of state are incompatible with the United States Constitution, which enshrines the grand jury in our constitutional order, and only serve to hinder voters’ confidence in our elections,” he wrote.

The Senate president included a legal opinion he commissioned from Brett Johnson, an Arizona election attorney with Snell & Wilmer.

Johnson concluded that Petersen acted appropriately and claimed that the arguments made by Fontes and Mayes are “not grounded in legitimate legal analysis.”

In the March 31 letter, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office acknowledged that a court order handed down during the Senate’s election review found that state law allowed election officers to hand over ballots and access to tabulation equipment to state officials, who must abide by confidentiality laws.

“While the focus of the court’s decision was the county’s 2.1 million ballots and its tabulation equipment, we believe that it is possible that the county disclosed its voter registration database to the Senate a second time, but without the previously-referenced redactions,” according to the letter.

And Fontes insists he has very real concerns about the security of Arizona’s voter data and ensuring state and federal laws are being followed.

“While we have been assured that voter registration information for individuals protected by court order or the address confidentiality program was not turned over to the Arizona State Senate during the audit in early 2021, the state Senate and the federal government continue to sidestep direct questions regarding which voter information may have been made available illegally,” Fontes said in a statement.

And Mayes accused Petersen of doing the Trump administration’s bidding as it attempts to undermine faith in Arizona’s elections.

“But make no mistake — this is not about 2020. This is about laying the groundwork to deny the results of the 2026 election if they don’t go their way,” she wrote.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona declined to comment.

“We are aware of the letter but have no further comment to provide,” spokesperson Lennea Montandon said in an email.

However, the last time Petersen asked the U.S. attorney to investigate a Democratic official in Arizona, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office told KJZZ “we are not an investigative agency.”

“When a matter is sent to our office, we will refer it to the proper investigative agency, as appropriate. We do not comment on the existence of an investigation,” the spokesperson said when asked about Petersen’s request for a federal investigation into Sen. Analise Ortiz after she shared social media posts about immigration enforcement activity in her community.