FBI subpoenas Arizona battleground for 2020 election records
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An Arizona state lawmaker announced Monday that federal authorities have subpoenaed him for records related to the 2020 election; This marks the second publicly confirmed jurisdiction the Justice Department is investigating on the matter.
Republican Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said in a social media post that he received and complied with the subpoena last week for materials related to the 2020 audit of the state Senate.
“Late last week, I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to the 2020 Maricopa County audit of the Arizona State Senate,” Petersen wrote. “The FBI has the records. Any other reports are fake news.”
The request represents an expansion of a federal investigation dating back to 2020 after the Justice Department initially targeted Fulton County, Georgia. The development also comes as President Donald Trump has become increasingly outspoken about election security ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and renewed his interest in disputes arising from the last presidential race.
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An election worker removes a ballot from an envelope to count and review the pages at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) on Election Day, November 5, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Petersen made the statement by sharing a Just the News report about President Donald Trump’s subpoena on Truth Social, writing, “Great! As voting investigation expands, FBI is secretly seizing election records from Arizona’s largest county.” He did it after writing.
Multiple U.S. officials confirmed the election investigation to Fox News and said the Justice Department was looking at large portions of Arizona data from 2020 and 2024.
President Donald Trump listens during an event on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in the India Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House complex on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
The White House referred Fox News Digital to the FBI on Monday when requested for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, an elected Democrat, said the new investigation was based on allegations that courts and state investigators have proven false.
“What the Trump administration is pursuing right now is not a legitimate law enforcement investigation,” Mayes said in a statement. “This is the weaponization of federal law enforcement to serve crackpots and lies.”
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Participants listen to Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) speak at the “Citizens Vote Only” bus tour rally advocating for passage of the SAVE Act in Upper Senate Park outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on September 10, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
The subpoena comes as the president is increasingly focused on election security ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, telling Congress in a social media post Sunday that he will not sign any legislation until Congress passes the SAVE America Act.
The main purpose of the bill is to require voters nationwide to show physical identification to prove their citizenship when voting in federal elections. The version of the bill Trump is pushing would also ban voting by mail, except for military and other extenuating circumstances.
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Maricopa, Arizona’s most populous county, was a hotbed of voter fraud accusations in 2020. Georgia’s Fulton County faces similar accusations, and the Justice Department launched a separate investigation into the 2020 election earlier this year.
Trump lost Arizona by about 0.3 percentage points in 2020. The president refused to accept this, and his legal team filed a series of lawsuits alleging vote-counting irregularities, but none were successful.
Fox News’ David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
