Were Maricopa County election records secretly seized by FBI?

PHOENIX – After President Donald Trump amplified a report about the FBI secretly seizing Maricopa County election records, local officials provided additional context.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen confirmed Monday that he recently complied with a subpoena for records related to the Cyber Ninjas-led audit of the 2020 elections.

The audit was authorized by the Republican-controlled state Senate and conducted in 2021 after Democrat Joe Biden won the state’s 11 electoral votes the previous November. It included a monthslong hand recount of approximately 2.1 million paper ballots that affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in Maricopa County, the state’s largest voting jurisdiction.

“Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County. The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news,” Petersen said in an X post that included a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post on the matter.

A spokesperson for Petersen told KTAR News 92.3 FM that he “does not have anything to add outside of his X post at this time.”

President Trump is 100% correct.

Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County. The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/C2T202VgZP

— Warren Petersen (@votewarren) March 9, 2026

The response from Petersen and other local officials came after Trump wrote “Great!!!” in a Truth Social post that shared a Just The News article headlined “FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona’s largest county as voting probe expands.”

The article, which cites anonymous sources, says, “FBI agents are receiving terabytes of electronic election data from Maricopa County.” It’s not clear if the story is referring to anything beyond the Cyber Ninjas audit records.

Maricopa County election agencies say they weren’t subpoenaed

KTAR News on Monday reached out to the two agencies in charge of elections in Maricopa County – the Elections Department and Recorder’s Office — and both said they have not received subpoenas. The Board of Supervisors, which oversees the Elections Department, and the Recorder’s Office are both under Republican leadership.

While their audit affirmed Biden’s victory with a slightly larger margin than the county’s certified results, the Cyber Ninjas’ final report alleged a number of shortcomings in election procedures and suggested their final tally might be unreliable.

After the audit report was issued, county officials said any discrepancies were likely to be the result of the Cyber Ninjas’ lack of expertise and haphazard procedures.

Trump and his supporters have cited possible anomalies noted in the Cyber Ninjas’ report as evidence to support their ongoing claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

The president has stocked his current administration with loyalists who have promoted his claims and in some cases helped him try to overturn that loss. The most dramatic  action so far has been the January seizure of ballots and election records from Fulton County, Georgia.

AG questions legitimacy of Trump pursuits, Sec. of State exploring legal options

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, issued a statement Monday accusing Petersen of spreading misinformation about Arizona’s elections. Petersen is seeking the GOP nomination to oppose Mayes in the 2026 general election.

“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,” she said. “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.”

Mayes noted that the Attorney General’s Office under her predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, “spent over 10,000 hours investigating” allegations of voter fraud that were found to be “unsupported by factual evidence.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who is also a Democrat, told KTAR News 92.3 FM that his office is still gathering information to determine what is going on, but called the seizure of the records problematic and said the action might be running up against the rule of law.

“The reality is here, I think we need to stop looking backwards at grievance, and I think we need to start looking forwards and strengthening our election system, preserving ballot by mail and just get away from 2020,” Fontes said. “Nobody can do anything about it right now.”

Fontes added that his office is looking into legal options to secure the personal voter information in the data, noting that he can’t confirm the information is at risk but believes it is a real possibility.

“Generally speaking, my job is to protect the sensitive voter information for all Arizonans,” Fontes said. “And I will tell you, my mom’s maiden name hasn’t changed, my social security number hasn’t changed, my driver’s license number hasn’t changed from 2020. And I bet there’s a ton of voters out there in Maricopa County who are in the same position.

“So we have a charge here at the Secretary of State’s office to protect that voter data from the same folks who would upload a bunch of social security data to unsecured servers like the federal government has.”

The Associated Press and KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Kylie Werner contributed to this report.

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