Republican Mark Brnovich\u2019s successor releases reports that debunked claims of fraud in Maricopa county in 2020 election
\nThe former attorney general of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, failed to release documents that showed his office\u2019s investigation into the 2020 election did not find evidence of widespread fraud in the state\u2019s most populous county.
\nThe Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Brnovich would not turn over public records that detailed his investigators\u2019 findings. His successor, the Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes, released the records, which showed several reports that debunked rampant claims of election problems in Maricopa county.
\nBrnovich, a Republican, was running for US Senate in 2022 while his office oversaw an investigation into the 2020 election. He released two reports related to the work \u2013 one that showed just one example of a dead person voting and one \u201cinterim report\u201d that made nebulous, unfounded criticisms of the county\u2019s elections.
\nBut the unreleased reports show Brnovich\u2019s investigators did not agree with some assertions he made publicly, such as that the county did not follow proper signature verification procedures or that the county had not been responsive to his requests for information.
\nIn an interview with the Guardian on Wednesday, Mayes said her office discovered a bunch of unfulfilled records requests upon taking over in January. She also wanted to find any potential final report for the 2020 investigation, which was not found.
\nHer office released two additional interim reports and an investigative summary, which are all publicly posted on the attorney general\u2019s website now.
\n\u201cThis office has a solemn duty to be honest and transparent with the people of Arizona,\u201d Mayes said. \u201cThe dark cloud cast over the 2020 and 2022 elections because of the insane conspiracy theories perpetrated by high-profile election deniers could have and should have been stopped, especially as it related to Maricopa county and its elections officials. I believe the people of Arizona had a right to know this information before the 2022 election. Unfortunately, that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d
\nThe investigation is considered closed, though there are hundreds more documents going through the redaction process that will be released once the office has completed that process.
\nThe office under Brnovich spent about 10,000 hours on the investigation and each of its 60 investigators spent at least some time on it, the Post reported.
\nMayes said it is hard to put a dollar figure on how much that cost the state or taxpayers, but the whole effort was clearly a \u201cdistraction from the core mission of this office\u201d.
\n\u201cBut I also want to say I\u2019m incredibly proud of the work the agents and support staff who worked on these investigations did. They did so diligently, thoroughly and professionally, as they do all of their work here,\u201d she said.
\nMayes said she did not get any insight into why Brnovich did not release the information while he was in charge, saying Brnovich would need to answer that for himself. Brnovich did not respond to a request for comment.
\n\u201cThis kind of failure to release information to the people of Arizona is not how this office will operate moving forward under my leadership,\u201d Mayes said. \u201cMy administration will be truthful and transparent.\u201d
\nThe Post report compelled elections officials throughout the state to comment on the revelations, especially those who Brnovich had previously criticized publicly.
\nClint Hickman, the chairman of the Maricopa county board of supervisors, said he was \u201cabsolutely disgusted\u201d that Brnovich concealed reports on the 2020 election and applauded Mayes for finally releasing the documents. He implored people who care about elections to read the reports.
\n\u201cThis was a gross misuse of his elected office and an appalling waste of taxpayer dollars, as well as a waste of the time and effort of professional investigators,\u201d Hickman said in a statement.
\nHe pointed to the onslaught of threats and harassment the board, elections officials and election workers have faced while false claims of impropriety in the 2020 election lingered for years.
\n\u201cFor three years, my colleagues have been called traitors, cheaters, and liars \u2026 and those are just the names I can print,\u201d Hickman said. \u201cIt has been absolute hell on all of us, but I would do it again in a second and I believe that every member of this board would do it again because all of us stayed within the law.\u201d
\nStephen Richer, the county\u2019s Republican recorder, noted two elements of the reports where investigators contradicted Brnovich\u2019s interim report by saying the county had been responsive and followed signature verification procedures. Those notes from investigators \u201cdistinctly show the ways in which our office cooperated with and supported the attorney general\u2019s office in the development of last year\u2019s interim report,\u201d Richer said.
\nArizona\u2019s Secretary of state Adrian Fontes, a Democrat who in 2020 was the Maricopa county recorder, said he was \u201cdeeply disappointed by the wasteful and pointless actions by a top law enforcement official who diverted thousands of hours of staff time to pursue unfounded allegations of election fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n
Theguardian<\/p>\n
Tags\uff1aAttorney General, 2020 Election Fraud<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Republican Mark Brnovich\u2019s successor releases reports that debunked claims of fraud in Maricopa county in 2020 election The former attorney general of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, failed to release documents that showed his office\u2019s investigation into the 2020 election did not find evidence of widespread fraud in the state\u2019s most populous county. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1613,1752],"class_list":["post-6313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-election","tag-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6315,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6313\/revisions\/6315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}