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election 2020
'The FBI Has the Records': 2020 Arizona Audit Info Subpoenaed by Grand Jury
The records taken by the FBI relate to an audit that confirmed Trump's loss in the Grand Canyon State to former President Joe Biden.
Mar 09, 2026
The FBI has served the Arizona State Senate a grand jury subpoena for voting records related to the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County, Arizona, in the latest sign that the federal government is working to investigate an election that President Donald Trump lost more than five years ago.
As the New York Times reported on Monday, the grand jury subpoena "was issued in recent days to the Arizona State Senate, which oversaw a sprawling but partisan audit of the vote result that was ordered by Senate Republicans in Maricopa County" months after Trump lost the 2020 race to former President Joe Biden.
Warren Petersen, the Republican president of the Arizona Senate, confirmed that he had received and complied with the subpoena, and revealed in a social media post that "the FBI has the records" related to the post-2020 audit.
As noted by MS NOW reporter Vaughn Hillyard, the audit in question was conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a now-defunct online security firm that confirmed Trump's defeat in the Grand Canyon State.
"The Cyber Ninjas found that, in fact, Joe Biden had won the county, per their hand count, by 360 more votes than originally believed," Hillyard explained.
The Trump administration's subpoena of the audit records comes at the same time that it is demanding Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes hand over his state's voter registration data.
As explained by the Brennan Center for Justice last week, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is "seeking access to highly sensitive voter information, including partial Social Security numbers," as part of its subpoena.
The Brennan Center also said it teamed up with the Campaign Legal Center to file a brief to oppose the Trump administration's lawsuit against Arizona, which it described as "part of an unprecedented nationwide effort to force states to turn over private voter data."
The FBI in January executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operations Center that allowed federal agents to seize 2020 election ballots, tabulator tapes, digital data, and voter rolls.
Shortly after the raid, Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory predicted that this kind of operation would likely be spreading to other counties and states.
“Fulton County is right now the target,” Ivory said. “But it is coming to a place near you. This is the beginning of the chaos of 2026 that is about to ensue.”
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FBI Raids Georgia Election Hub at Center of Trump's 2020 Fraud Conspiracies
Members of the GOP-controlled election board "are abusing their power," a voting rights group said. "Perpetuating misinformation about elections can lead to threats against local election officials who refuse to cave to lies about the 2020 election."
Jan 28, 2026
The FBI on Wednesday executed a search warrant at the warehouse that serves as the election hub for Fulton County, Georgia—a location central to President Donald Trump's election fraud conspiracy theories.
Bureau sources confirmed to CBS News that they had conducted a “court-authorized activity” in connection with an investigation related to the 2020 election. A spokesperson for the FBI field office in Atlanta said no additional details can be provided because "the investigation into this matter is ongoing."
Fulton County Clerk Ché Alexander told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a large number of agents were seen entering the warehouse and hauling out boxes of ballots.
“The FBI agents are here to get the 2020 ballots,” Alexander said. “They’re all here—trucks, everything."
Former President Joe Biden narrowly won the state of Georgia en route to defeating Trump in 2020. But Trump has long alleged—through numerous disproven claims—that his loss was the result of widespread voter fraud.
Fulton County, which contains most of the Democratic stronghold of Atlanta, was at the center of the misleading allegations spread by Trump and allies, who claimed, among other things, that election workers had surreptitiously tallied tens of thousands of fraudulent ballots.
Despite these claims being thoroughly refuted by Republican election officials in the state, Trump infamously attempted to pressure Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” for him, which would allow him to win the state in the Electoral College.
In 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought racketeering charges against Trump and 18 of his associates over the scheme, which was described as part of a conspiracy to illegally overturn Georgia's election result. However, that case never made it to trial after being bogged down by a scandal involving a relationship between Willis and the special prosecutor assigned to the case, which ultimately led to it being thrown out in November.
At a speech last week in Davos, Switzerland, Trump seemed to warn that retribution against those he claims to have been involved with election theft was coming. Speaking of what he said was a “rigged election,” Trump said: “People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. That’s probably breaking news.”
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) had already sued Fulton County in December for access to its ballots and other records from the 2020 presidential vote, a lawsuit Democracy Docket said "came after far-right members of the state’s GOP-controlled election board asked the department for assistance in obtaining 2020 ballots and voting records."
Prior to that, Ed Martin, the head of the DOJ’s "weaponization task force," sent a letter to a Fulton County judge demanding to “immediately access” 148,000 absentee ballots being stored in a ballot warehouse, which he said were needed as part of an "election integrity" investigation being conducted by the DOJ.
In October, the New York Times reported that a top "election integrity" official in the Trump administration had urged the president to invoke a "national emergency" to allow for more federal control over election rules typically left to state and local governments.
"I would have been unsurprised if the Fulton County DA was targeted by the administration for investigation," said Anthony Michael Kreis, a political scientist at the Georgia State University College of Law. "But going directly after the Fulton County elections office is an entirely different and potentially startling development."
The voting rights group All Voting Is Local said in a statement that "by first calling on the Trump administration's Department of Justice to investigate Fulton again, and now supporting the lawsuit, the conspiracy theorists who now make up a majority of the State Election Board are abusing their power. Perpetuating misinformation about elections can lead to threats against local election officials who refuse to cave to lies about the 2020 election."
This article has been updated with a new quote from All Voting Is Local.
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Democrats to Spotlight Trump Election Threats at January 6 Hearing
A panel aimed at fighting GOP efforts to "rewrite history" regarding the US Capitol attack will also "examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections posed by an out-of-control Trump administration."
Dec 30, 2025
At a hearing on the fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol next week, House Democrats plan to look back as well as forward—countering Republicans' efforts to "rewrite history and whitewash" the attempted insurrection by President Donald Trump's supporters and warning of the GOP's threats to upcoming elections and to US democracy.
The event next Tuesday will be an unofficial one, as Democrats are in the minority and do not have the authority to call formal hearings.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a Dear Colleague letter to other lawmakers on Monday that the hearing would shed light on the "toxic priorities" of Trump, who after taking office in January issued blanket pardons for nearly 1,600 people who were charged in connection to the January 6 attack.
" Donald Trump promised to lower the high cost of living on day one of his presidency," wrote Jeffries. "One year later, costs are out of control, America is too expensive, and Republicans believe that the affordability crisis is a hoax. They have done nothing to lower costs for everyday Americans, but are gutting healthcare and enacted massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors."
While doing nothing to make life more affordable for families—and helping to make household grocery and electricity bills higher—Trump has pardoned hundreds of people who "brutally assaulted law enforcement officers" on January 6, including several who have been charged with new crimes and "a troubling number" who "have been arrested for child molestation, sexual assault, and kidnapping," said the Democratic leader.
"Republicans own the failed economy, their broken promise to lower costs, and the crime spree the dangerous criminals pardoned by the president have visited on our country," wrote Jeffries.
The mob on January 6 attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election, which Trump had spent weeks at that point insisting had been stolen from him and which the president and his allies continue to deny was won by former President Joe Biden.
But Republicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have made efforts to sanitize the attack, which took place after Trump held a rally urging his supporters to march "over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard" and said they would see whether "Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections."
After Trump took office this year, Johnson announced a new congressional subcommittee that would expose "the false narratives peddled by” the previous bipartisan panel that issued a report in 2022 about Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his encouragement of the attack.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who led the bipartisan committee, will also oversee next Tuesday's hearing.
In addition to exposing "the election deniers who hold high-level positions of significance in the executive branch," wrote Jeffries on Monday, the panel "will examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections posed by an out-of-control Trump administration."
The president has pushed Republican-led state legislatures in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and other states to draw new congressional maps to help the GOP maintain power in the 2026 midterm elections.
He signed an executive order in March that purported to require proof of citizenship for people who register to vote—an effort that was blocked by a federal judge in October—and the US Department of Justice has sued several states to compel them to share voter registration data with the federal government.
Legal experts have emphasized that the president does not have the authority to change how elections are run, despite Trump's continued efforts.
Jeffries said the January 6th Select Committee would join Thompson in leading the hearing, which is scheduled for 10:00 am Eastern time next Tuesday.
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