Overview
- Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson sent a letter Tuesday criticizing FBI activity in the city and inviting Vice President JD Vance to inspect local election operations in person.
- Federal agents have interviewed election-related personnel, including at least one Wisconsin Elections Commission official, several Milwaukee police officers, and a poll worker, with agents reported in the city as recently as May.
- Milwaukee County is preserving roughly 180,000 absentee ballots from 2020 because a pending lawsuit prevents their destruction, and the county’s corporation counsel has cited that litigation as the reason for retention.
- Republican WEC chair Don Millis has asked Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to order the ballots destroyed, while the FBI and the attorney general’s office have declined to offer public comment on the probe.
- The dispute builds on five years of litigation over the 2020 result with local leaders saying no credible evidence of widespread fraud was produced, and the clash could influence public trust and political messaging during the vice presidential visit.