by Staff Reporter | Nov 10, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
On Thursday, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the validity of the 2022 attorney general election results.
Congressman-elect Abraham Hamadeh — formerly Arizona’s Republican attorney general candidate challenging Attorney General Kris Mayes’ 2022 claim to the seat — said in a response to the ruling that the court system had set their challenge up to fail. Hamadeh lost the race by less than 300 votes with thousands of provisional votes not counted.
“The closest race in Arizona history (280 votes with 9,000 uncounted ballots) was sanctioned, delayed, and now won’t be heard by the Supreme Court even though it’s the only case that has had a split decision at the Court of Appeals,” said Hamadeh.
Hamadeh said that he knew many of the justices involved in his case personally, and that their ambition to advance in their careers had compromised them where it mattered. He noted that he would do the opposite with his newly won seat: champion Arizonans’ interests to “Make America Great Again” in Congress.
“I will never forget when the people were counting on them to deliver justice they remained silent, became controlled opposition, and were complicit in the corruption — their legacy will be remembered as cowards,” said Hamadeh.
Hamadeh filed his appeal over a year ago, last September. One of the issues that came about in Hamadeh’s attempt to challenge the election was delays to rulings. Provisional votes were discovered late according to response delays from counties.
Issues argued in court pointed to a significant number of undervotes and misread ballots, a total believed to be, at minimum, hundreds of votes greater than the lead Mayes had on Hamadeh.
In her time as attorney general, Mayes has focused her office’s energies on the prosecution of those who contested the 2020 election results on behalf of President Donald Trump. Like the attorneys general of other states, she is currently going after the Trump electors for that election.
Just before Election Day, Mayes also announced that she had tasked her office with investigating Trump over his remarks at a recent rally.
While in Arizona at an event with personality Tucker Carlson last week, Trump had said that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney wouldn’t be eager to thrust America into another war if she actually fought in one. Trump said that Cheney ought to face down the guns of war before advising the U.S. enter another war.
“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her,” said Trump. “Okay, let’s see how she feels about it. You know when the guns are trained on her face — you know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building.”
Later, on Truth Social, Trump said that Cheney lacked “the guts” to fight.
“It’s easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she’ll say, ‘No thanks!’” said Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who Trump defeated in a landslide this week for the 2024 presidency, pushed to have the public believe that Trump should be disqualified from the race over his remarks.
“This must be disqualifying. Anyone who wants to be president of the United States, who uses that kind of violent rhetoric, is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president,” said Harris.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Sep 14, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Attorney General Kris Mayes has been asked to investigate the city of Surprise over its alleged violation of one citizen’s free speech rights.
Republican State Senator John Kavanagh sent a letter to Mayes on Tuesday requesting an investigation into the arrest of a Surprise citizen after criticizing the city attorney during a city council meeting last month. The arrested citizen, Rebekah Massie, sued the city of Surprise last week with the aid of Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
Mayor Skip Hall, who ordered Massie’s removal, cited city policy prohibiting public comment from lodging any “charges or complaints” against city employees or elected officials.
State law requires the attorney general to investigate local governmental ordinances, regulations, orders, or other official actions alleged to be in violation of the state law or Arizona Constitution. Under this law, Mayes’ office would have to issue a written report of their findings within 30 days of receiving the investigation request.
In a press release, Kavanagh claimed that the city of Surprise had violated both state law and the Constitution with Massie’s arrest.
“In Arizona statutes, we have a provision that specifically says, ‘[a] public body may make an open call to the public during a public meeting, subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body,’” said Kavanagh. “Protecting freedom of speech, especially in public government settings, is incredibly important to our democracy. Regardless of where they stand, members of the public deserve the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns to city leaders.”
Kavanagh’s letter to Mayes asked the attorney general’s office to investigate whether the city of Surprise’s policy restricting public speech by prohibiting complaints against city employees and elected officials violates the Arizona Constitution and state law governing public comment within public meetings.
Were Mayes to determine that the city of Surprise’s public comment policy violates state law or the Arizona Constitution, her office would provide notice to the city by mail of its violation and give the city a 30-day deadline to resolve the violation. Should the city fail to resolve the violation, Mayes would notify the state treasurer to withhold and redistribute state shared funds.
Or, were Mayes to determine that the city’s public comment policy may violate certain state law or the Arizona Constitution, the attorney general would file a special action in the state Supreme Court to seek a resolution. The court would then require the city to post a bond equal to the amount of state shared revenues paid to the city in the last six months.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | May 27, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., sent a letter to Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes asking the Democrat to drop her “frivolous lawsuit” against allies of former President Donald Trump by June 1.
“I just sent a letter to Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes demanding that she resigns and drops the frivolous lawsuit against former Trump officials for questioning the results of the 2020 election,” Breechen said in a post on X.
Brecheen’s letter to Mayes, joined by representatives Troy Nehls, R-Texas, and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz, called for her to drop the lawsuit against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other conservative activists indicted for questioning the results of the 2020 election.
“Not only is this a violation to the 1st Amendment, it is blatant interference in the 2024 election,” the Republicans wrote in a letter first obtained by Breitbart News.
An Arizona grand jury indicted Meadows, former Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arizona Republican Chair Kelli Ward, and others on May 24 for their roles in disputing the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Every American has the right to free speech, including the right to question the results of elections,” the letter reads. “Your choice to indict American citizens for expressing constitutional rights represents the worst of machine politics, and we intend to take every action available to Congress to rectify your decision.”
This comes as Trump leads President Joe Biden in the polls in several key swing states, including Arizona. Trump led by seven points in the Grand Canyon state, receiving almost 50% support from voters who said they would vote for him, while Biden received only 42%.
The indictments “rely on a shaky legal framework and are malicious in nature,” the representatives wrote in the letter, which breaks down the charges against the Trump allies.
“Clearly, your intention is not to follow the law but to initiate a political witch hunt,” Brecheen, Nehls, and Biggs wrote.
The congressmen promised to continue fighting lawsuits against Trump from Congress.
“If you do not, we the undersigned look forward to using the full extent of our authorized powers to rectify your abuse of office,” they said.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Feb 1, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s Attorney General is standing with the state’s Senate President to protect the financial interests of families.
Last week, Attorney General Kris Mayes sent a letter to the IRS Commissioner, requesting the agency “reconsider its decision to tax the 2023 Arizona Families Tax Rebate.”
In a statement that accompanied her announcement, Mayes said, “The IRS should act promptly to reverse this decision and provide clear guidance to Arizona taxpayers as tax season nears. If they do not, my office is prepared to examine all legal avenues to ensure these dollars stay in the pockets of Arizona taxpayers.”
The news from the state Attorney General’s Office follows communication from Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen over this matter. Earlier this month, Petersen issued a press release to share that he was “working diligently to come to a resolution that will protect the more than 700,000 recipients from having to give the federal government a portion of [the rebate] this tax season.”
Petersen also thanked Mayes’ office for “reaching out to us on this matter,” though he cautioned that “litigation likely isn’t the best approach.”
In her letter to the IRS Commissioner, Mayes argued that “the full Tax Rebate should be excludable from federal tax under the general welfare exclusion,” and that “at a minimum, the Tax Rebate should be excluded from federal tax to the extent it does not exceed state taxes that were actually paid and that were not deducted from federal income.”
The state’s top cop pointed to past IRS guidance and states where the agency “determined to be excludable from federal tax in February 2023,” such as Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, and Indiana. She added that different guidance from the IRS established other exclusions that benefited four states – Georgia, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Virginia. In closing, Mayes wrote that “it would…be fundamentally arbitrary and inequitable to preclude Arizona and its taxpayers from relying on that guidance, particularly given the materially similar (and less restrictive) state programs that the IRS found to be nontaxable in whole or in part last year.”
Mayes asked for the IRS to reply to her letter “by return letter or through amended published guidance no later than February 6.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Jan 18, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Tuesday, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) violated the Arizona Constitution’s Gift Clause.
Mayes determined that the ACA’s high-dollar “CEO Forums” — in which ACA would court CEOs with accommodations, experiences, and refreshments — were unconstitutional, namely noting the massive expenditures without returns last year under Hobbs. In a letter to ACA general counsel, Mayes explained that the gifts corporate executives were impermissible because they didn’t create concomitant public value.
“The current structure of the CEO Forums confers significant value on invited private executives and their guests without obtaining any identifiable value for the state,” said Mayes.
ACA is a state agency dedicated to growing and diversifying the state economy by attracting, expanding, and retaining businesses. ACA is managed as a public-private partnership.
Mayes’ findings confirmed a report from the auditor general last September which determined that the ACA may have misspent about $2.4 million to court private CEOs between 2018 and 2023. A majority of that — over $2 million — occurred last year alone under Hobbs’ first year as governor.
From 2018 to 2022, ACA spent about $356,000 in total on forums for corporate executives: an average of $89,000 per year, about 4.5 percent of what ACA spent on last year’s forum.
Last year marked the most expensive CEO Forum under investigation. The forum was planned around the Super Bowl and Waste Management Phoenix Open; ACA spent over $2 million on corporate executives, and Gov. Katie Hobbs was one of the recurring featured experiences.
In Mayes’ decision on Tuesday, she pointed out last year’s forum specifically.
“While the ACA may hold forums that confer a nominal value on attendees, its past forums, including last year’s $2 million Super Bowl forum and its planned 2024 Forums, do not come close to meeting that requirement,” said Mayes.
As part of last year’s forum, ACA gifted corporate executives and their guests rooms; in-state transportation; event tickets to the Waste Management Phoenix Open VIP Skybox, an NFL Owners Party, a Super Bowl VIP Tailgate Party, the Super Bowl Experience, private viewing suite for the Super Bowl, and concerts associated with the Phoenix Open and Super Bowl; theater tickets; regular season football game tickets and parking passes; lunch invitations with NFL leadership; and Super Bowl Host Committee VIP Golf Tournament tickets.
ACA admitted in a December response to the attorney general that they couldn’t attribute direct causation between CEO Forum attendance and a decision to locate a project in Arizona. Mayes declared that the inability to show cognizable economic value received for their expenditures constituted a violation of the Gift Clause.
“ACA’s responses to our office’s inquiries demonstrate that it expends considerable funds on simply achieving attendance at the CEO Forums even though there is no public benefit from an executive’s private ‘changing perception and increasing sentiment’ about Arizona,” wrote Mayes. “ACA counts non-binding commitments to locate a project in Arizona as ‘project wins.’”
Up until the Tuesday determination by Mayes, ACA was planning on spending another million on corporate executives this year.
ACA planned to spend over $1 million on two forums this year for the NCAA Final Four Basketball tournament and the Waste Management Phoenix Open. If the costs were split evenly, each forum would cost around $400,000 more than the individual 2018-2022 forums held under former Gov. Doug Ducey.
Mayes pledged to prevent the ACA from issuing future gifts to private entities.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
