By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) – The FBI has obtained records related to the 2020 election in Arizona, a top state lawmaker said on Monday, as federal law enforcement continues to pursue President Donald Trump’s false claims that his defeat in that campaign was the result of voting fraud.
The FBI subpoenaed the Arizona Senate last week for material connected to a Republican-led audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said in a social media post.
“The FBI has the records,” Petersen, a Republican, wrote in the post.
The demand for information from Arizona is the latest instance of the Trump administration deploying U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to gather evidence of alleged irregularities in the 2020 election, despite courts and audits repeatedly rejecting claims of widespread voter fraud.
It was not immediately clear what crimes the FBI may be investigating. An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Petersen declined to elaborate on his social media post.
The FBI in January seized 2020 ballots from a Georgia county elections center as part of a court-approved search of the facility. Fulton County has sued for the return of the material, alleging the search violated the U.S. Constitution and relied on discredited allegations.
The 2021 Maricopa County audit, which was run by Trump’s Republican allies in Arizona, largely affirmed the initial 2020 election results, finding slightly more votes for Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden. Trump’s loss in Maricopa County was key to his narrow defeat to Biden statewide.
The audit made several claims of election irregularities, which county officials vigorously disputed.
“What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry,” Arizona State Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said in a statement. “It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies.”
The investigations into Georgia and Arizona, two states that have been hotly contested in recent presidential elections, come as Trump has spoken openly about the federal government taking control of elections in certain unspecified areas of the country.
Trump has put a lawyer, Kurt Olsen, who backed the “Stop the Steal” movement to overturn the 2020 election results, in charge of an effort to reexamine the 2020 vote.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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