Sources with knowledge of the investigative activities of federal officials looking into the 2020 election told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that at least two additional workers involved in administering Milwaukee’s election that year have been sought out by FBI investigators.
The news comes after FBI agents sought to question one of Milwaukee County’s top election officials about the 2020 presidential election, according to Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson. He said agents visited the home of the county’s elections director, Michelle Hawley, and left her a business card.
The visit to Hawley’s home brought a response from County Executive David Crowley, who said the action “raises serious concerns of intimidation.”
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported last week that the FBI was investigating Wisconsin’s 2020 election and that an agent had spoken with the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s deputy administrator, Robert Kehoe. During the meeting, Kehoe reportedly debunked false claims.
The FBI’s investigation is in a preliminary phase, and no ballots had been seized in Wisconsin, sources told the Journal Sentinel.
Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election. A recount in two Wisconsin counties that Trump’s campaign paid for, court rulings, a state audit and a conservative review have confirmed that Trump lost. Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes.Officials in Wisconsin – and especially Milwaukee – have been preparing for an investigation.
The Wisconsin probe comes after federal officials in January seized hundreds of boxes of ballots related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, and after the FBI issued a grand jury subpoena in March for voting information in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin have all been central to Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election. Trump has insisted, without evidence, that former President Joe Biden didn’t win in Wisconsin that year.
There is no evidence to support claims of widespread fraud in Wisconsin’s 2020 election. Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman previously led a fruitless review of the election, which cost taxpayers more than $2 million and turned up little information that wasn’t already known.
If federal officials investigate the 2020 election in Milwaukee, it’s possible that poll books and nearly 180,000 absentee ballots with attached ID numbers could be turned over to investigators. Since state law requires absentee ballots counted at a central counting facility to include poll list numbers, the data could be matched with poll book information to identify voters.
Election officials in Milwaukee have raised concerns about such a move, stressing that protecting voters’ privacy and their right to vote is a priority.
Ballots from the 2020 election typically would have been destroyed by now. But Milwaukee’s 2020 ballots still exist, partly because of a lawsuit filed against the city by a New London man who has sued state and local election officials over the 2020 election and related issues.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson slammed President Donald Trump in the wake of news the FBI is investigating Wisconsin’s 2020 election.
“Let me state it clearly — Donald Trump won elections for president in Wisconsin for both 2016 and 2024. He lost the election for president in 2020 in Wisconsin to Joe Biden,” Johnson said in a May 14 statement. “Deploying federal law enforcement to alter reality is outrageous.”
He added, “Milwaukee elections are conducted with the highest level of integrity and accuracy. Multiple objective reviews of our elections confirm that.”
Mary Spicuzza and Molly Beck can be reached at mary.spicuzza@jrn.com and molly.beck@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: FBI has sought out at least 2 more Milwaukee election staffers
Reporting by Mary Spicuzza and Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
