‘Lies that undermine our democracy’: Arizona governor slams FBI election probe

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and several Democratic officials and voting rights organizations have denounced the FBI’s decision to subpoena records related to the 2020 presidential election in Arizona’s Maricopa County, characterizing it as an attempt to undermine trust in elections.

“Arizonans are tired of election conspiracies and lies that undermine our democracy,” Hobbs (D), who previously served as the secretary of state, said in a social media post. “Arizona’s elections are free, fair, and secure, which numerous lawsuits and even the Arizona Senate’s ‘audit’ into the 2020 election results have confirmed. The FBI’s reckless actions are an attack on Arizonans and undermine our rights as voters.”

News of the subpoena became public after Warren Petersen, the GOP president of the state Senate, said on social media Monday that he recently complied with a federal subpoena for records from an exhaustive legislative audit of the state’s 2020 election results.

The FBI’s subpoena indicated that the bureau has broadened the scope of its investigation into the 2020 presidential election, which Trump has baselessly claimed was stolen from him. It echoed the bureau’s January raid on an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, another battleground state Trump claims he lost to voter fraud.

The FBI’s interest in the audit is unclear. Conducted by the now-shuttered cybersecurity firm Cyber Ninjas, the review has been widely discredited, but nonetheless ultimately reinforced former President Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona.

Kris Mayes, Arizona’s attorney general who may be challenged by Petersen in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, said in a statement that the FBI’s Maricopa County probe stemmed from Trump’s “weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies.”

“The 2020 General Election in Arizona has been exhaustively reviewed. Multiple audits, court proceedings, and independent investigations — including those pursued by members of the same political party of the President — found no evidence of fraud sufficient to alter the outcome,” Mayes said.

“Warren Petersen knows all of this,” she added. “He has known it for years. He spread false stories of election fraud in 2020, and he remains an unrepentant election denier, using his platform as Senate President to legitimize conspiracy theories that Arizona’s own courts and law enforcement have thoroughly debunked.”

Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said in a social media post that Trump and the FBI may be pursuing the probe to create a pretext to assert more control over U.S. elections.

“Trump is planting seeds of doubt in our elections to justify future intervention in the midterms,” Grijalva said. “He sees the writing on the wall (a blue wave), and he’s scared. But Arizonans won’t buy it.”

“The Trump administration is again misusing the FBI to fuel conspiracy theories and further his attempt to federalize elections. The FBI’s decision to subpoena voting records from the 2020 election in Maricopa County is another step in President Trump’s election takeover playbook,” Michael McNulty, the policy director for the pro-democracy group Issue One, said in a statement.

“It follows on the heels of similar actions that the administration took in Fulton County, Georgia, and Puerto Rico, and it is part of a concerning trend of the administration trying to push false narratives about election fraud, install loyalists who will act on those lies, and weaponize government power to pursue them,” McNulty added.