Milwaukee, Wisconsin – FBI Director Kash Patel sent numerous agents to the homes of current and former election officials in Wisconsin as President Donald Trump continues to insist he won the 2020 election.
Having expanded the FBI's probe into Trump's claims about the 2020 election into Milwaukee, Wisconsin, agents showed up at the private homes of election officials and conducted interviews about alleged voter fraud.
The visits reportedly began after FBI agents appeared unannounced at the home of Milwaukee County's elections director, Michelle Hawley.
According to sources who spoke to the Washington Post, the agents asked about a flash drive containing absentee ballot results and allegations that an Illinois man secretly printed ballots for Joe Biden in a backroom.
These questions were fueled by various online conspiracies, including one about a thumb drive that was left behind by Milwaukee's then-election director Claire Woodall when she brought them to a county office.
Despite the fact that flash drive was promptly brought to the county office by a police officer, pro-Trump theorists claim the incident is proof of fraud.
"Our secret ballot is secret for a reason," Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chair of Wisconsin's elections commission, told the Washington Post. "It's sacrosanct. It is at the heart of our American democracy."
"Those people who demand to know how everyone voted are violating those core tenets of what it means to vote as an American."
The unannounced interviews come months after FBI agents raided an election facility in Georgia and seized boxes of ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election.
Kevin Kennedy, who formerly served as Wisconsin's chief election official, warned that "the potential for mischief is there, and we have seen in this age of social media that it will happen."