The FBI has started an investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 election, sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The investigation is only in a preliminary phase and is focused on vetting previous complaints – and no ballots have been seized in Wisconsin, the sources said.
Confirmation of the probe came as the Journal Sentinel reported that an FBI agent had interviewed a state election official in recent days. The agent spoke with Wisconsin Elections Commission deputy administrator Robert Kehoe and discussed how elections are handled in Wisconsin.
President Donald 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.
Kehoe reportedly debunked false claims during his meeting with the FBI agent.
A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment.
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.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman previously led a fruitless review of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin, 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.
The FBI is the investigative agency within the U.S. Department of Justice, which is suing Wisconsin officials over their refusal to provide the confidential information of voters that state election officials say is protected by Wisconsin law.
The federal lawsuit is one of nearly two dozen the Trump administration has filed across the country seeking voter lists without personal information redacted.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat, sharply criticized the FBI questioning a Wisconsin election official.
“Donald Trump, the loser of the 2020 presidential election, continues to whine and use intimidation tactics against election officials. Trump believes that any election he loses is illegitimate,” she said in a statement. “Our elections are safe and fair and will remain that way.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: FBI investigating Wisconsin’s 2020 election, sources confirm
Reporting by Mary Spicuzza, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
