Maricopa County officials are attempting to delete emails that potentially relate to the 2020 and 2022 elections, as well as irregularities in the 2024 elections, amid potential investigations by Trump Administration officials into the election fraud.
In a letter to Maricopa County Manager Jen Pokorski, newly elected Republican County Recorder Justin Heap sounded the alarm on the Maricopa County Enterprise Technology and Innovation (ETI) department’s plans to delete archived emails from previous administrations. These documents are the subject of outstanding public records requests and may be of value in an official investigation.
Heap argues that the destruction of these emails would violate Arizona law, relating to record retention, and county policies. He further asks that the records be maintained due to their historical significance and in order to fulfill public records requests.
Local activist Merissa Hamilton says the move by Maricopa County is “suspect,” as “Trump Administration officials signal fresh probes into 2020 concerns and beyond.”
Elections in Maricopa County have come under intense scrutiny following the 2020 election, which was stolen from Trump, and the 2022 election, where 60% of the voting machines miraculously failed on election day and robbed then-gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, then-Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh, and others of a win.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced last month that the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is investigating violations of federal voting laws and cracking down on state voter rolls. This likely includes a deeper dive into Arizona, a hotbed for election irregularities, especially in 2020 and 2022.
Previously, US Rep. Abe Hamadeh, whose 2022 election was stolen by just 280 votes, also told The Gateway Pundit that he met with FBI Director Kash Patel and signaled that the FBI is looking at what happened in Arizona. “I’m still seeking justice. I’m just going to say, stay tuned to see what happens. We haven’t forgotten,” Hamadeh said.
Hamadeh later alerted the Department of Justice to potential illegal activity in Arizona and several western states after a whistleblower came forward with “credible claims” of election security violations involving the Arizona-based ballot printing firm, Runbeck Election Services. Runbeck, which surely has email correspondence with County officials, allegedly commingled blank ballots with voted mail-in ballots in a warehouse during the 2024 vote-counting process. The shady private entity, founded by leftists, transports and scans Maricopa County mail-in ballots with no chain of custody and little oversight before they are processed and counted by the County.
Additionally, just last week, it was revealed by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that documents related to corruption in the 2020 election were found “tucked away in the back of safes in random offices” in “burn bags.” The evidence of election fraud is expected to be made public shortly.
The emails could also include collusion between Maricopa County officials and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to censor so-called “election deniers” and The Gateway Pundit’s reporting on Maricopa County elections.
Furthermore, this comes amid an ongoing fight between the County Recorder’s office and the Board of Supervisors after they previously stripped the Recorder of election oversight duties. Recorder Heap says a “quickly and secretly executed” Shared Services Agreement was “collusively” entered by RINO Former County Recorder Stephen Richer and RINO Maricopa County Chairman Thomas Galvin. In a statement, Heap said the agreement, created months before he took office, was “designed to do only one thing: keep me from fixing Maricopa County’s elections.”
The shared services agreement also transferred control of all information technology servers, email archives, and record custody to the Board, essentially locking Heap out of access to his own office’s records. Notably, Heap is now unable to access records from the previous Recorder’s administration, which still face public scrutiny.
It appears the County is trying to delete email correspondence that may prove collusion with Stephen Richer, who infamously defended the County’s shady elections and even sued Kari Lake for speaking out about her stolen election.
Hamilton notes that “they’re now denying access to the current Maricopa County Recorder—raising serious questions about what they’re trying to conceal.”
Heap told The Gateway Pundit, “I honestly don’t know what they’re hiding, but I know that no elections have been more contested, and people have a real interest in these elections and we’ve had pending lawsuits. There are still records requests for this information that are going unfulfilled.”
“We’re never going to be able to reinstill trust in our election system unless we have more transparency, and the worst thing that the board could do would be to delete all records prior to us coming into office,” Heap continued. “It’ll just leave a hanging question out there forever. What were they covering up, I think, is a legitimate question, and I’ve been committed that I would produce, that I would try to be transparent, and would fulfill these requests… Now, it looks like the board is actively trying to get rid of these before either I or the public has an opportunity to review them ourselves.”
To make matters worse, Nate Young, head of the Maricopa County IT department and former Recorder Richer’s Chief Information Officer, apparently sent a contemptuous response to a Recorder’s Office employee, calling Heap’s request to maintain the records “[ridiculous].”
Read the full thread by Merissa Hamilton on X:
WHOA! MARICOPA COUNTY CORRUPTION ALERT
Public Records show Maricopa County Moves to Permanently Delete Senior Staff Emails from 2020 & 2022 Elections, Defying Potential DOJ @CivilRights Investigations @RecordersOffice @azjustinheap sent a letter to Maricopa County… pic.twitter.com/ngyAMfw6IV
— Merissa Hamilton
(@merissahamilton) August 28, 2025
This is a developing story. The Gateway Pundit will continue to provide updates.
The post SEND IN THE US MARSHALS: After Locking New County Recorder Out of System, Maricopa County is Attempting to Illegally Delete Records Ahead of Potential DOJ Investigations appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.