By Staff Reporter |
Republican nominee for attorney general Warren Petersen is calling on Attorney General Kris Mayes to be more transparent about her decision to dismiss the pay-to-play investigation into Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Petersen said in a statement that Mayes has a duty to release all interview and deposition transcripts, referring to the seven-page analysis released earlier this week as a “cliffs notes report” lacking key information beneficial to the public.
“If Mayes is confident in the integrity of her investigation, she should have no problem allowing Arizonans to judge for themselves,” said Petersen. “Release the files.”
Mayes opened up her investigation into Hobbs more than two years ago based on allegations that the governor had engaged in pay-to-play with Sunshine Residential Homes, a group home operator that served as a major donor to Hobbs’ inauguration fund, her secret legal fund, and the Arizona Democratic Party.
A timeline of events and donations first put together in a June 2024 report by the Arizona Republic indicated that Hobbs had used her authority to ensure Sunshine Residential Homes got the rate increase it had sought and initially failed to secure.
Although Republican elected officials positioned themselves as the first to take investigatory action, Mayes called for them to stand down and announced she would take on the investigation. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and Auditor General Lindsey Perry were told that their investigatory efforts would be “[in]appropriate” that would potentially “jeopardize the integrity” of the investigation into Hobbs.
However, both Mitchell and Perry have continued their independent investigatory efforts. Erin Pellett, a spokesperson for Mitchell, was unable to provide an estimated end date for their investigation.
An advisory team formed specially within the Arizona House for the purpose of investigating the pay-to-play allegations also obtained outside counsel earlier this year and launched their own investigation into the matter. That team also has not published its findings.
And then last week — a little more than two years after Mayes announced her investigation, and several days after Hobbs made clear in a letter from lawyers that she wouldn’t do an in-person interview with Mayes — Mayes published a seven-page memorandum clearing Hobbs of any wrongdoing.
The attorney general declared that her investigation of more than 100,000 records, including the records of 12 interviews with others close to the matter, had failed to uncover evidence of bribery.
Some felt the investigation fell improperly short in its scope. Mayes had been asking Hobbs to sit for questioning for months, but never secured that interview. The language of the report also indicated that modes of communication outside of official state channels weren’t investigated.
Arizona Republican Party Chair Sergio Arellano told The Center Square that Hobbs had lied about sitting for an interview, and that Mayes had shielded Hobbs from taking accountability on her lack of transparency.
“For months, Hobbs looked Arizonans in the eye and claimed she was ‘in touch’ with the [attorney general’s] office. That was a straight-up lie. She explicitly refused to sit for an interview,” said Arellano. “This is the Arizona Democratic Socialist playbook, plain as day: Delay, deny, delete the evidence, and declare ‘no quid pro quo’ when the political calendar gets tight.”
Petersen similarly accused Mayes of protecting Hobbs.
“Kris Mayes made a calculated decision to protect her political ally, Katie Hobbs, in the now-infamous pay-to-play scandal,” said Petersen. “After dragging the investigation out for two years, Mayes buried her announcement on a Friday afternoon, knowing the weekend would temper questions about the integrity of her investigation. Arizonans deserve transparency and truth about what happened with the Hobbs’ [sic] Administration and Sunshine Residential.”
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