Originally published September 27, 2023 8:18 am PDT
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is maintaining tight control over the documents related to a 2020 voter registration fraud probe involving GBI Strategies.
The FBI stepped in after initial investigations by the Muskegon Police Department and Michigan State Police, focusing on GBI Strategies’ alleged role in voter registration fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
Despite requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by Just the News, the bureau continues to withhold the requested documents, hinting at the ongoing nature of the investigation.
According to the State Attorney General’s press secretary, Danny Wimmer, “An organization turned in some thousands of voter registrations throughout the fall of 2020, estimated on the high end to be cumulatively 8-10,000, and some within those batches were found to be suspicious or fraudulent.”
These allegations initially garnered attention from city and state authorities before the FBI assumed control over the investigation.
The state’s attorney general’s office verified that thousands of suspected fraudulent voter registrations were under investigation and subsequently referred to the FBI, as reported by Bridge Michigan.
The FBI has kept the details of the investigation under wraps, invoking 5 U.S. Code § 552(b)(7)(A), which permits the exemption of “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes” from disclosure if it might reasonably interfere with ongoing enforcement proceedings.
The FBI’s response mentioned: “The records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records, and release of the information could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
Local law enforcement, alongside the FBI, continued collaborations into 2022.
Nevertheless, the progress or current status of the investigation beyond that remains obscured, with no evidence unveiled in the memos acquired by Just the News via Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act.
Wimmer reassured that “[n]one of the fraudulent material was incorporated into the state’s qualified voter file, and this had no effect on any ballot requests or associated processes. This attempted fraud was detected because the system worked.”
In-depth analysis by Michigan Police in 2020 documented specific instances of seemingly suspicious or fraudulent registrations involving GBI Strategies, labeled by a Michigan State Police memo as “Election Fraud by Forgery.”
The city clerk who received the suspect registrations was instrumental in flagging the irregularities, with legitimate registrations found intermixed within the batches.
Wimmer conveyed last month to The Detroit News that the FBI was the suitable entity to resolve the investigation, given its national jurisdiction.
He independently corroborated to Just the News that “The case was referred to the FBI in March of 2021.”
However, inquiries about the investigation were met with reluctance from the FBI National Press Office and the Muskegon Police Department, as it is their “standard practice [is] to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
The available police reports reveal that the FBI had been actively involved, inspecting voter registration applications at the Muskegon Police Department in May 2021 and requesting random copies of some voter applications in March 2022.
