Washington – The head of New Mexico’s state election authority has held talks with federal prosecutors as part of the special counsel’s investigation into the 2020 election, a spokesman for the agency said Friday.

A meeting with New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver took place in the past few months, spokeswoman Alex Curtus said, declining to comment further.

For months, the Justice Department has been investigating a pressure campaign by Trump aides to reverse election results in battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden.Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team issued a summons It has reached out to election officials in states Trump is contesting, seeking contact from Trump associates and campaign aides, and plans to meet with state officials in the coming months.

The exchanges with state officials are part of a larger investigation by Smith and his team to block the transition of power from Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden. It’s not clear when Smith’s investigation into the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riots will end, or if anyone could be charged.

A spokeswoman for Smith declined to comment on Friday.

It is unclear what questions were asked of second-term Democratic Rep. Toulouse Oliver about the 2020 New Mexico election.

After Biden won the state by about 11 points, the Trump campaign temporarily challenged the outcome in court before dropping the lawsuit. Republicans in the state submitted false electoral college certificates declaring Mr. Trump the winner, but the false electors were later recognized as duly elected and eligible electors. He added the warning that he submitted the certificate in preparation.

Democrats control all statewide electoral positions in New Mexico and hold a majority in the state legislature, but their false allegations of cheating and manipulation of voting machines in 2020 will end in 2022. It has resonated in some politically conservative communities, including Otero County, where commissioners initially refused to recognize the election in June. result.

Former Otero County Commissioner and Cowboys for Trump co-founder Qui Griffin was banned from public office last year for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Ravensperger Officials at Smith’s office and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson have also been in discussions with Smith’s office officials in recent months, staffers said.

Kathy Buchver, Pennsylvania’s state elections director for the 2020 election, said Friday she had not been asked for an interview.

It’s not clear at this time whether state officials overseeing the 2020 elections in the other states Trump has disputed—Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin—have been interviewed. Claire Woodall Vogg, head of the Milwaukee Electoral Commission, said in an email that she had a virtual meeting with investigators a month or two ago.

“I don’t know if I can share any details, so I have nothing more to say,” she said.

Efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse the Georgia defeat are also the subject of a separate investigation in Atlanta’s Fulton County, with local prosecutors saying they expect a verdict. there is at the end of this summer in the next step. that is, January 2, 2021 Phone Trump suggested that Ravensperger could help him “find” the votes needed to reverse Biden’s victory.

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Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporter Morgan Lee of Santa Fe, New Mexico contributed to the report.