Arizona Senate Republican leaders have issued a subpoena to Maricopa County officials looking for routers and other data as part of the ongoing audit of the 2020 election, the Arizona Republic is reporting.
The newspaper said state Senate President Karen Fann and Senate Judiciary Chairman Warren Petersen demanded that the county board of supervisors make the information available for a 1 p.m. hearing on Monday.
And Bill Gates, a Republican member of the board, confirmed the new development in an interview on CNN.
"Right before I came on here, the board of supervisors received another subpoena from the state Senate ordering us to turn over the routers, in addition to some other information,” he said. “And they threaten us in these papers that if we do not turn those over by Aug. 2 — so that’s next Monday — then we could be held in contempt.”
County spokesperson Fields Moseley told the Republic that the county "has already provided everything competent auditors would need to confirm the accuracy and security of the 2020 election."
"The board will review the materials requested with our legal team and respond in the coming days," Fields said.
Former President Donald Trump said last week that Maricopa County's refusal to allow full transparency amid the 2020 presidential election audit makes him skeptical once again, suggesting that county election officials have something to hide.
"Why won't the RINO Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona give the routers?" Trump asked in a statement from his Save America PAC. "What are they trying to hide? They are fighting for life or death. What is going on?"
"Give the routers!" Trump's statement continued. "Doesn't this mean that the voting was, despite their statements to the contrary, connected to the Internet? The voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election was monumental, and the facts are coming out daily!"
The Republican-held Arizona Senate originally subpoenaed the internet routers from the county polling places, but the county rejected the request, claiming it would cost $6 million to replace them.
According to the Washington Examiner, Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel has argued that providing the routers “could jeopardize the security of law enforcement data.”
In addition to the routers, the new subpoena demands any information about data breaches to the county’s election system, the Republic said. The subpoena also wants ballot envelopes with voter signatures.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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