Report: Trump FBI probing Wisconsin’s 2020 election

By Jacob Knutson

Election workers counting absentee ballots on November 04, 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Election workers counting absentee ballots on November 04, 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The FBI questioned a senior election official in Wisconsin this week about the 2020 presidential election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The fact that an FBI agent recently interviewed Wisconsin Elections Commission deputy administrator Robert Kehoe indicates that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may be expanding its efforts to probe and relitigate the 2020 election.

During his interview with the FBI, Kehoe clarified how Wisconsin carries out its elections and debunked false claims, according to the Journal Sentinel, which cited sources with knowledge of the conversation.

In a statement to Democracy Docket, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC)  said the commission “routinely discusses election matters with federal, state, and local officials.”

“The WEC is committed to transparency in matters of public interest; however, there are occasions when we are unable to confirm or discuss certain topics, that includes closed session discussions pertaining to privileged and confidential matters,” the spokesperson added.

Already, the FBI has seized data from the 2020 election in Georgia and Arizona, which, along with Wisconsin, have long been at the center of election conspiracy theories spread by Trump and his allies.

Trump has repeatedly baselessly claimed that he won Wisconsin because thousands of ballots were fraudulently cast for former President Joe Biden, who won the Badger State by over 20,000 votes.

After the election, Trump and his legal team attempted to overturn the results by demanding that over 200,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee and Dane counties be thrown out during a recount, claiming they were illegal and invalid.

The recount ultimately confirmed Biden’s victory and increased his margin by 87 votes.

The FBI’s seizure of 2020 materials in other battleground states this year has alarmed state and local election officials in Wisconsin, who fear the bureau may attempt to obtain hundreds of thousands of ballots cast in Milwaukee that year.

In March, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) told the Journal Sentinel that he would resist any attempt by the FBI to obtain election documents as part of Trump’s ongoing attempts to relitigate past elections.