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A federal grand jury has subpoenaed election records from Arizona's Maricopa County as part of a growing Trump administration investigation into the 2020 presidential election.
Warren Petersen, the Republican president of the Arizona State Senate, announced Monday (March 9) that he received the subpoena late last week and had already turned over the records. "The FBI has the records," Petersen wrote on X, adding that he had complied with the grand jury's request for documents tied to the state Senate's 2020 audit of Maricopa County.
President Trump cheered the development on Truth Social, reposting a report from the right-leaning site Just the News and adding, "Great!!!"
The subpoena marks a significant expansion of the administration's post-2020 election inquiry. Just six weeks ago, the FBI raided an elections warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing ballots and records from the same election. Both counties have been central to President Trump's unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
According to The Washington Post, a federal official with knowledge of the subpoena confirmed the FBI obtained the records, speaking anonymously because the action had not been made public. The records in question date back to a 2021 review commissioned by the Republican-led Arizona State Senate, which examined nearly 2.1 million ballots. That review, funded by Trump supporters and conducted by a firm with no election experience, nevertheless concluded that Joe Biden won Arizona, with "no substantial differences" from the certified count.
Because of that audit, the state Senate retained election records that would otherwise have been destroyed. Those records reportedly include ballot images, absentee envelopes, vote tallies, and server software, according to a former staff member familiar with the matter.
Jason Berry, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement that the county had not yet received a subpoena but would cooperate if it did. "Maricopa County runs elections in accordance with the law," Berry said. A spokesperson for County Recorder Justin Heap also said his office had not received a subpoena as of Monday afternoon (March 9).
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, sharply criticized both Petersen and the administration. "What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry," Mayes said in a statement. "It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies." Mayes added that Petersen was using his platform "to legitimize conspiracy theories that Arizona's own courts and law enforcement have thoroughly debunked."
The Department of Justice has also sued more than two dozen states for access to voter rolls, demanding unredacted files that include voters' private data such as driver's license numbers and Social Security digits.