The letter, dated Friday, is particularly notable coming from the office of Brnovich, a Republican who previously vied for Trump’s support in a GOP Senate primary bid that hinged on false claims about the 2020 election results.
The IRS and FBI Phoenix Field Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for True the Vote could not immediately be reached for comment.
Grigsby urged federal agencies to prosecute the group after what he described as multiple suspicious interactions with executives Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips. Grigsby said the couple had met with state investigators three times since the start of 2021 and promised to provide data he said would prove widespread fraud in the 2020 election – but the evidence never came. arrivals.
Even though the group never handed over the promised data, Grigsby writes, it began publicly claiming that it had donated a hard drive to the state — a claim that Grigsby said the group had also made to the Senate of Arizona and the FBI’s Phoenix office.
“Not only is this blatantly untrue, TTV has acknowledged in correspondence and in a meeting with them that they did not give us the information, but they will,” he wrote.
True the Vote propagated allegations of voter fraud by relying on geolocation data, which became the focal point of the film ‘2000 Mules’. Trump cited the film as proof that the election was stolen and he praised the group’s work. But the film’s claims have been hotly questioned by federal investigators and researchers who have tested its theories.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr forcefully chastised the film’s premise during testimony before the Jan. 6 select committee. He told the panel that in any metropolitan area, geolocation data would likely show “hundreds” of people who have passed through drop boxes multiple times.
“The premise that if you go through a box, five boxes or whatever, you know it’s a mule is simply untenable,” Barr said, adding, “It didn’t establish illegal harvesting. widespread,” Barr said.
Despite Barr’s mockery of the premise, Trump promoted his claims both online and at his public events.
In an April 2022 meeting, Grigsby said the group claimed to have evidence of “243 mules” who had stuffed ballot boxes in Arizona. But they presented no hard evidence to back it up, he said.
During his last meeting with the group on June 1, Grigsby said Engelbrecht and Phillips indicated that they had shared all of their data with the FBI and were working with the bureau as informants. But he said the FBI field office in Phoenix quickly confirmed this to be false and the group, in turn, told FBI agents to contact Brnovich’s office for their data.
Grigsby also pointed to the organization’s non-profit status, noting the “considerable sums of money” they had raised while alleging massive voter fraud and promising to provide the information to law enforcement – even if they were still unable to provide the information.