Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen announced yesterday that he complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to the state Senate's 2020 audit of Maricopa County's presidential election results.

Petersen, a Republican, posted on social media that the subpoena arrived late last week and that he turned over the materials, adding, "The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news." The records pertain to a controversial Republican-led review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous county and a key battleground that then-President Donald Trump lost by about 0.3 percentage points.

The audit, conducted by the firm Cyber Ninjas and overseen by the state Senate, ultimately affirmed Joe Biden's victory and even slightly expanded his margin in the county. It found no evidence of substantial voter fraud despite initial Republican claims of irregularities.

Maricopa County officials clarified that they have not received a subpoena directly from the FBI and no records have been seized from the county itself. County spokesperson Jason Berry and Elections Department spokesperson Judy Keane emphasized their willingness to cooperate if subpoenaed.

President Trump reacted enthusiastically on Truth Social, reposting a report and commenting, "Great!!! FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona's largest county as voting probe expands." The action marks the second known instance of the Trump administration seeking 2020 election records from a battleground state, following a similar effort in Fulton County, Georgia.

Multiple U.S. officials indicated that the Department of Justice is reviewing a large volume of Arizona election data from 2020 and potentially 2024 as part of an expanding federal probe into election administration. The White House referred questions to the FBI, which declined to comment.

Democratic officials criticized the move. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes stated, "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." Governor Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes also condemned the subpoena, with Fontes calling it an attempt to undermine elections and exploring ways to protect voter data.

The subpoena comes as the Trump administration pushes for stricter election security measures ahead of the 2026 midterms, including Trump's insistence on passing the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for federal voting and limit mail-in ballots. Physical ballots from Arizona's 2020 election have been destroyed per state law after two years, though digital images' status remains unclear.