A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent visited the home of Milwaukee County’s elections director earlier this week in an attempt to question her, the county clerk has said.
It’s the latest sign that the Trump administration is probing the results of the 2020 presidential race in Wisconsin.
“I can confirm that a representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited the home of my Elections Director and left her business card,” Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said in a statement issued Wednesday evening.
“It is unfortunate that the FBI chose to visit the private residence of Milwaukee County’s Elections Director rather than contact the Election Commission’s office directly,” Christenson added. “No dedicated public servant should be subjected to that type of intrusion simply for carrying out her responsibilities with integrity and professionalism.”
While Christenson did not name the county official targeted, Michelle R. Hawley currently serves as Milwaukee County’s elections director.
The FBI official wanted to ask about Milwaukee’s absentee ballots from the 2020 election, local news channel WISN 12 reported, citing unnamed sources. The ballots have reportedly not been destroyed yet.
“The 2020 Presidential Election was fair and transparent, and its results are accurate,” Christenson wrote, noting that multiple recounts, audits and legal challenges had affirmed those conclusions. “Continuing to relitigate settled questions does not strengthen public confidence in elections but it undermines it.”
The visit wasn’t the first signal that Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is probing the Wisconsin results. Earlier this month, the FBI questioned Wisconsin Elections Commission deputy administrator Robert Kehoe.
Wisconsin is one of several states that Trump targeted in the wake of the 2020 election as he and his legal team attempted to overturn the results.
Shortly after the vote, they demanded that over 200,000 absentee ballots from Wisconsin’s Milwaukee and Dane counties be thrown out during a recount, claiming they were illegal and invalid.
That recount ultimately confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory and even increased his margin by 87 votes.
Since returning to office last year, Trump has renewed his attacks on the 2020 race.
Earlier this year, the FBI conducted an unprecedented raid on the election hub in Fulton County, Georgia to seize 2020 ballots and subpoenaed documents related to a legislative audit of the 2020 vote in Maricopa County, Arizona. Both counties were prominent targets in Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 results.
In March, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) told the Journal Sentinel that he would resist any attempt by the FBI to obtain election documents as part of Trump’s ongoing attempts to relitigate past elections.
Christenson echoed those sentiments in his statement Wednesday.
“While we cooperate with all legitimate law enforcement actions, we will defend against any attack on our democracy and will defend the rights of voters of Milwaukee County,” he wrote. “Our responsibility as election officials is to safeguard the integrity of the process through facts, transparency, and adherence to the law, and the record clearly demonstrates that those standards were met in 2020.”
