Six days before Christmas, the House Jan. 6 Committee gave Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) a referral to the House Ethics Committee. In response to the committee’s final attempt to bend Biggs to their will, Biggs promised to publicize the committee’s “lies” and correct the record.
The referral was part of a larger set of referrals capping off the committee’s final hearing, chief among which was the criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Cheseboro to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The committee referred Biggs for sanctions to the House Ethics Committee for failing to comply with their subpoenas. They suggested that Biggs and others referred for sanctions should be questioned publicly about their “advance knowledge of and role in President Trump’s plan to prevent the peaceful transition of power.”
The committee announced their decision after their final meeting on Monday, and issued a 154-page report of their findings.
Although the committee publicized a number of records within its report, they’ve refused to publish certain information of interest. Records of federal involvement — such as the ongoing mystery behind Ray Epps, who appears to be the only Capitol intruder to avoid prosecution — remain inaccessible to the public.
Monday’s decision by the committee was punishment for Biggs’ refusal to comply with their subpoena. The congressman refused to turn over information regarding Jan. 6 and then refused to appear for his deposition.
The Jan. 6 Committee findings documented Biggs’ communications with Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, advising their administration to encourage state legislators to appoint electors, and to not allow Trump to concede the election. Biggs also coordinated with defeated secretary of state candidate, then a state representative, Mark Finchem, to gather Arizona lawmaker signatures in support of new electors.
The committee also noted Biggs’ criticisms of their work.
Biggs decried the committee’s announcement as “their final political stunt” of many. Biggs added that the committee’s use of the House Ethics Committee was an inappropriate maneuver to justify “predetermined” conclusions.
“They only wanted the testimony to have the ability to edit and misconstrue our statements to further their own false narratives, as they did with so many other witnesses,” stated Biggs.
In addition to Biggs, Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23), Jim Jordan (R-OH-04), and Scott Perry (R-PA-10) were referred for an ethics probe.
The committee claimed that Trump violated 18 U.S.C. § 1512(C), 371, 1001, and 2383. These statutes prohibit the obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to make a false statement, and incite, assist, or aid or comfort an insurrection.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08) declared that the committee’s hands were tied “inescapably” by the application of facts to law.
“We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today… just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy we describe in our Report,” stated Raskin.
Among those to testify against Trump before the Jan 6. Committee was outgoing House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa).
Watch the full meeting here:
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The city of Tucson is eyeing plans to subsidize bus fare for $10 million for the next six months, with the ultimate goal of making free public transit permanent. However, Tuesday’s council discussions indicated that “free” may eventually become additional cost burdens elsewhere for Tucson taxpayers.
During Tuesday’s study session, the council proposed several ideas for offsetting the cost to the city to provide fare-free transit forever, after establishing funding partners. Mayor Regina Romero suggested establishing more parking garage fees. Councilwoman Lane Santa Cruz said that the pandemic afforded a unique opportunity in establishing a “new normal” for transit. Santa Cruz said that long-term financing might have to include an additional property tax.
City staff reported that the entire bus system costs around $105-106 million, with $53 million coming from the city. That includes the Sun Tran, Sun Van, and Sun Link transit systems. Advertising revenue brings in about $1.7 million annually, intergovernmental agreements with regional partners including the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) makes up $19.2 million ($11.7 million from RTA plan), and federal grants total $20 million.
The council reported that Raytheon, a major defense contractor, has signed on as a partner already. The city is attempting to bring on other partners, specifically naming University of Arizona (UArizona) and the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). City Manager Mike Ortega disclosed that the city hasn’t reached out to other school districts, and indicated that they wouldn’t.
Romero shared that TUSD was interested in providing fare-free transit for its students, but that UArizona wasn’t. Romero said that she tried to sell the transit initiative by reminding UArizona President Robert Robbins that staff and faculty, in addition to students, used public transit; that it would look good as a climate change initiative; and that it would save Robbins from having to build more parking.
Romero also agreed that city employees should ride the bus for free.
Due to federal pandemic relief funding, the city hasn’t charged for public transit in well over two years. Fares are scheduled to resume on Jan. 1.
Ortega first recommended the city take on the expense. In a memo submitted to the council on Monday, Ortega cited its Built Environment Goals and Policies focus as the rationale for shifting to fare-free transit.
Tuesday’s meeting was the fourth time that city staff brought this agenda item before the mayor and council. Romero asked for a continuance to allow city staff to further conversations with potential funding partners. Ortega indicated in Tuesday’s meeting that these partners were hesitant to advance further in this initiative without further data.
Watch Tuesday’s council meeting here:
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
On Monday, a superior court judge refused to dismiss Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s lawsuit entirely against Maricopa County and the state. Wednesday’s planned hearing will go on.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson also denied petitions from outgoing Secretary of State and governor-elect Katie Hobbs, and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, to avoid deposition.
The judge rejected Hobbs and Maricopa County’s argument that the Rules of Civil Procedure determining whether a case qualifies for civil litigation don’t govern election contests. The judge did agree that the court timelines permitted for discovery conflicted with the constricted deadline required by statute. However, even on that point he said precedent prioritized statute over civil procedure.
“[I]n this instance the substantive statute – with its strict timelines and limited room for discovery that define the parameters of an election challenge – must prevail over civil rules which simply do not fit in these cramped confines,” wrote the judge.
Hobbs sought exemption from deposition. Her team sought application of “apex doctrine,” something which excuses high-ranking government officials and executives from testifying. The judge indicated that granting Hobbs’ request would set a standard exempting all government officials.
“While the Court is sensitive to the need to have discovery be proportional to the needs of the case, the Court is not inclined to apply a blanket rule that high-level government officials can never be called to testify,” stated the judge.
The judge rejected Lake’s request to include emails in discovery, opining that the request went beyond the intent of statute for ballot inspection. He warned that a lax interpretation would have the “potential for transforming election contests of limited scope into a lighting-round of discovery disputes.”
The judge also addressed Lake’s claims that Hobbs and the county violated the First Amendment. As AZ Free Newsreported earlier this month, both Hobbs and the county worked with a private company operating as a middleman between government and social media. Thompson asserted that free speech violations were “premise[d] on state action,” or direct involvement.
“[T]he First Amendment does not restrain private parties from opposing speech, or choosing what to publish,” wrote Thompson. “This is the key deficiency with the claim against the Recorder and Secretary’s respective reports to the Election Misinformation Reporting Portal—after the report is made, there is no further conceivable state action. Twitter (to take one example) takes down posts that offend its terms of service after a report is made, and neither the Recorder nor the Secretary are alleged to have control over that process or are alleged to have the authority to compel such a take-down.”
In short: the court took Hobbs and Richer at their word.
Thompson also rejected Lake’s claim that Maricopa County’s ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers lacked the required certification. He stated that relevant statute didn’t include printers. The judge did grant Lake an opportunity to present findings to support her claim of BOD interference resulting in lost votes for her in court.
Thompson rejected Lake’s attempt to include a challenge of Maricopa County’s signature verification efforts, noting that Lake had since the April release of Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s report on the subject to confront the issue — but didn’t. Thompson also rejected Lake’s claim that mail-in ballots violate the state constitution’s secrecy laws, nothing that Lake had 30 years to challenge the law.
Thompson also rejected Lake’s claims of due process and equal protection violations, indicating they were vague and repetitive.
Thompson did accept Lake’s claim that Hobbs and Maricopa County violated chain of custody law. Thompson also afforded Lake the opportunity to prove BOD printer malfeasance.
BREAKING: Our Election Case is going to trial. Katie Hobbs attempt to have our case thrown out FAILED. She will have to take the stand & testify.
Maricopa County Supervisor Jack Sellers capped off his year-end newsletter by celebrating a “Defender of Democracy” award from a Big Tech-funded, election-influencing nonprofit.
Sellers received the award in July alongside Elections Director Scott Jarrett and outgoing Secretary of State/governor-elect Katie Hobbs’ assistant secretary of state-turned-chief of staff, Allie Bones. The Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR) issued the awards. CEIR received $69.5 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, in August 2020 through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — three months before the contentious presidential election.
Along with Scott Jarrett, honored to be in DC to accept a Defender of Democracy Award, on behalf of our entire Maricopa County Elections Team, from the non-partisan Center for Election Innovation & Research. pic.twitter.com/f9dw2qLEpB
Ultimately, CEIR gave nearly all of those funds — over $64.2 million — to state and local government officials to encourage mail voting and enhance voter information. Arizona received nearly $4.8 million. That was on top of other Big Tech monies that Arizona’s election officials received. As AZ Free News reported last March, the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) issued $5 million to the state. $3 million went to Maricopa County specifically.
The founder and executive director of CEIR is former DOJ lawyer David Becker. He disputed that CEIR’s funds swayed the 2020 election. CEIR reported that 85 percent of the funds were used for paid media, while 11 percent were for direct mail and 4 percent were for communications activities.
Further details about what the media entailed weren’t provided. The general report bears some similarities to CTCL’s vagueness concerning the expenditures of its funds.
THREAD /1. Given some recent disinformation being pushed by the losing candidate, it's likely time we again post this full accounting/report, originally published in March, on the voter education grants @ElectionInnov offered in September of last year.https://t.co/uEwhnKKpa7
Arizona was one of 23 states to receive CEIR grants. The others were Connecticut, $2.1 million; Florida, $287,000; Georgia, $5.6 million; Illinois, $2.7 million; Iowa, $1 million; Kentucky, $1.6 million; Maryland, $575,000; Massachusetts, $200,000; Michigan, $12 million; Minnesota, $1.5 million; Missouri, $1.1 million; New Jersey, $6.1 million; New Mexico, $768,000; New York, $5 million; North Carolina, $1.1 million; Ohio, $1.1 million; Pennsylvania, $13.2 million; Rhode Island, $632,000; South Carolina, $1 million; Vermont, $312,000; and Washington, $405,000.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative hasn’t publicly announced any funds it gave, if any, for this recent election.
While serving in the Civil Rights Division Voting Section in the early 2000s, Becker enforced the Voting Rights Act. The DOJ acting head at the time, Brad Schlozman, told reporters in 2020 that Becker should’ve been disbarred for unethical behavior. Schlozman described Becker as a “hard-core leftist” who “couldn’t stand conservatives.” Becker didn’t dispute the claims against him for unethical behavior, but noted that they were dismissed.
There are heroes defending democracy all over the nation, from both parties. @jacksellers is one of them, along with his colleagues on the Maricopa County board (majority Republican) and D and R election officials throughout AZ. https://t.co/pZiEtNbX1T
Other election officials to receive CEIR’s award included election officials from Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Other recipients of the award included lawyers from the Election Official Legal Defense Network, two former officials with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and two retired federal judges.
Two journalists also received the award: Reuters reporters Linda So and Jason Szep, for a series titled “Campaign of Fear: The Trump world’s assault on U.S. election workers.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A locked door will no longer be a barrier to first responders assisting the elderly or those with special needs.
Earlier this month, the Phoenix City Council launched a program to provide lock boxes for the elderly and those with special needs. Without an access point like a lock box, first responders like firemen may be forced to break into homes to provide assistance, potentially breaking doors and damaging the property in the process.
Firefighters from @PHXFire & @ScottsdaleFire safely evacuated two elderly homeowners during a 2nd Alarm House Fire near 44th St & McDonald Dr. On arrival crews found heavy fire and smoke coming from the roofline of a large residential home. pic.twitter.com/14jZvAa0cT
The council members approved the program unanimously. The city will launch a pilot version of the program in District 1 prior to work out any challenges and hone in logistics.
Councilwoman Ann O’Brien explained that the program would prevent significant property damage from occurring to those requiring firemen assistance. It comes at no cost to the city.
Other cities such as Glendale and Scottsdale have already coordinated with private entities to roll out similar programs.
The Phoenix Realtors donated 100 lock boxes to establish the program, called the “Residential Lock Box Access Program.” The Phoenix Fire Department will oversee the program, maintaining a database of installations, ensuring the Phoenix Fire Regional Dispatch Center codifies the data in a premise alter for responding units.
Those interested in the lock box program may contact the Phoenix Fire Department’s Community Involvement Section.
#PHXPD800Patrol Officers were called to a check on an elderly man (85) who missed his Dr. appointment. When they arrived, they saw he had no electricity, no food, no AC, as well as seven dogs.
Fentanyl overdose kits are the latest among necessary school supplies for University of Arizona (UArizona) students.
Amid the burgeoning fentanyl crisis, Pima County supplied all 15 of the UArizona fraternity houses with fentanyl overdose treatment kits for the upcoming semester.
The county supplied the houses with Narcan kits as part of a year-long drive initiated by one of their Community Mental Health and Addiction interns, Aiden Pettit-Miller. UArizona’s Emergency Medical Services team and Interfraternity Council (IFC) also assisted.
Miller, a senior student at UArizona, says he launched the initiative after one of his high school friend’s roommates at Arizona State University (ASU) overdosed on fentanyl in 2020.
Narcan is the brand name for the medicine naloxone, and is also used to treat overdosing from other opioids: heroin, oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), codeine, and morphine. First responders rely on the treatment for suspected overdosing.
The Arizona Department of Health reports over 1,400 opioid deaths so far this year. AZDHS folds fentanyl-related deaths into the “RX/Synthetic” category, which includes “all other opioids” except heroin, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone. This year, the number of RX/Synthetic deaths is nearly 1,400 (97 percent).
In 2021, there were over 2,000 opioid deaths; just over 1,900 (94 percent) of deaths were RX/Synthetic. The fatality rate per 100,000 population dropped this year from 28 percent to 20 percent.
Amid the border crisis ushered in by the Biden administration, fentanyl deaths arose as the leading cause of death among adults aged 18 to 45 years old.
Teens accounted for 77 percent of adolescent overdose deaths last year. The demographic spike correlated with efforts by cartels to ply youth with the deadly drug, such as “rainbow fentanyl.”
Fentanyl became the subject of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) first public safety alert in six years, issued last September. As part of their campaign to raise awareness about the deadliness of fentanyl, “One Pill Can Kill,” the DEA discovered that about 60 percent of fake prescription pills contain lethal doses of fentanyl. The discovery marked an increase from the 2021 average of 40 percent.
These fake pills are marketed and disguised to appear legitimate via social media and e-commerce platforms.
Did you know that 6 out 10 seized #fakepills contain a lethal dose of fentanyl? #fakepills seizures are up and our #DEAHouston Associate Lab Director for South Central Jamie Vasquez speaks on the fake pills seizures that come through the lab. #OPCKpic.twitter.com/SbAL0zQXpI
On college campuses like UArizona, victims of fentanyl overdosing range widely. The partygoer looking for a high and the student looking for extra focus are at equal risk. UArizona, along with ASU, ranks consistently as one of the top party schools in the nation, and Adderall is a popular go-to for students studying for exams or finishing hefty assignments. Both popular party drugs and study boosters may be obtained illicitly, and both are likely to contain deadly doses of fentanyl.
During finals do not risk it, do not buy any adderall from a “friend”, or social media it is likely a counterfeit pill with a lethal dose of fentanyl. pic.twitter.com/YnMoF8C4nY
UArizona is also looking to create an organization called “Fraternities Fighting Fentanyl” with their School of Public Health, the fraternities, and the student-run emergency medical service. The organization will hand out fentanyl test strips, Narcan, and educational pieces to students.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
