The Republican-controlled Arizona state Senate launched a 2021 review of roughly 2.1 million ballots from Maricopa County. Trump backers bankrolled the initiative, which was carried out by a company lacking any background in elections and led by an executive who had backed Trump's baseless allegations of fraud. Despite all this, the unofficial audit still confirmed Joe Biden's victory, finding results virtually identical to the officially certified totals.
In fact, the Cyber Ninja's audit increased Biden's margin of victory by 360 votes compared to the official count.
Well, now the FBI has seized that data. Trump responded on Truth Social, writing, "Great!" It's as if we're all being held captive by a raging narcissist who is incapable of handling defeat. He's going to do this forever, isn't he?
This is the second instance in 2021 in which the FBI has retrieved records tied to the 2020 election from the most populous county in a key swing state — both of which Trump failed to carry in his reelection bid. Earlier in January, federal agents seized ballots and related documents from Fulton County, Georgia, which encompasses Atlanta, pursuant to a court-approved search warrant obtained by the Justice Department.
According to the warrant affidavit, the request was based on allegations that were several years old, most of which had already been extensively examined and determined to show no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud.
Via The Washington Post:
A federal grand jury in Arizona has subpoenaed records from a review that Republican lawmakers conducted of the 2020 presidential results and that confirmed President Donald Trump lost.
The subpoena opened a new front in the Trump administration’s expanding hunt for evidence that has never surfaced to support the president’s claims of widespread fraud. The law enforcement steps have alarmed election officials and Democrats who fear that the administration is building an argument for interfering in this year’s midterm elections.
Arizona’s state Senate president, Warren Petersen, said Monday that he had received and complied with the subpoena late last week. “The FBI has the records,” he said on X.
A federal official with knowledge of the subpoena confirmed that the FBI obtained the records. The official asked to remain anonymous to discuss a law enforcement action that had not been made public
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes issued a scathing statement on Xitter, noting that "the 2020 General Election in Arizona has been exhaustively reviewed."
"In fact, under the direction of my predecessor, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, agents and support staff of the Arizona Attorney General's Office spent over 10,000 hours investigating voting irregularities and alleged instances of illegal voting by high-profile election deniers," she wrote. "Warren Petersen knows all of this. He has known it for years."
"What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry. It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies," she added.
How much money is this costing taxpayers? We're in the midst of an affordability crisis that the president has downplayed as a 'hoax,' even though there is a housing crisis, rising food prices, a war with Iran, and the economy and our healthcare system are in the shitter. But we have to pay to pacify Trump's bruised ego. And of course, Republicans like Warren Petersen can't stop licking Trump's boots while the world is on fire.
