Trump revives debunked conspiracy claim to explain Arizona election investigation
President Donald Trump is targeting an election he lost in Arizona six years ago.
In a snippy exchange with a White House reporter on Wednesday, the president explained why: “I think it was rigged.”
When the reporter reminded Trump that his attorney general found no evidence of election fraud, Trump attacked her.
“If you think it wasn’t rigged,” the president shot back, “you’re a rotten reporter.”
Arizona elections officials face an unprecedented push by the Trump Administration to overturn the president’s 2020 election defeat in Maricopa County.
Two investigations were disclosed this week:
- A criminal case that resulted in a grand jury subpoena to the Senate president for Maricopa County’s 2020 election records.
- A probe by Homeland Security Investigations, whose mission is dealing with drug cartels and human traffickers, that sought apparently random information about the 2020 vote in Maricopa County.
Information about both investigations is scant.
Over the last six years, Trump’s claim of a stolen election has been repeatedly debunked.
The Republican Senate president is the custodian of a massive trove of election data the Senate subpoenaed from Maricopa County in 2021, for its so-called election audit.
The Trump-backed endeavor confirmed his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the key swing county. That defeat cost Trump Arizona’s 11 electoral votes.
The final report was filled with baseless conclusions.
Trump’s renewed attacks on Maricopa County have re-energized conspiracy theorists and alarmed elections officials.
“We’re not 100% sure what’s going on,” Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, the state’s top elections officer, said in an interview. “What I do know is it’s all about 2020, and one person’s grievance.”
Fontes was already under fire from the Trump Administration before the investigations were disclosed. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Arizona and other states for access to their voter rolls.
“I will not give up those voter rolls,” Fontes said. “They’re going to have to find somebody else to do it if the courts rule against us.”
Fontes and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes have warned county election officials not to turn over their voter files to the federal government.
Counties that turn over unredacted voter files to the Department of Justice “would violate both federal and state law,” Fontes and Mayes said in a letter this week.
The two new investigations by Trump-controlled agencies have revived unfounded conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 vote in Maricopa County.
According to emails obtained by 12 News through a public records request, Homeland Security Investigations’ top agent in Arizona wanted information from Mayes’ office about “late-arriving ballots” in 2020, “questionable ballots,” and the “deletion of election records.”
Mayes’ office responded with a report by former Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich that dismissed claims of wrongdoing in the 2020 vote.
“The Trump administration is engaged in an unserious investigation into an election that took place six years ago based on nothing but conspiracy theories and lies,” Mayes said in a statement.
Republican Senate President Warren Petersen disclosed the second election investigation.
Petersen, who is running for attorney general, said on social media that he handed the FBI Maricopa County’s election records that a grand jury subpoenaed.
Petersen has declined to say what he handed over, but voter records are believed to be among the digitized records held by the Senate.
The focus of that investigation has not been disclosed.
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How big is Maricopa County?
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.
