by Staff Reporter | Jun 24, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Federal campaign finance records revealed that Sen. Ruben Gallego spent campaign cash for game tickets, child care, and luxury outings for the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona.
Gallego tapped a joint campaign accord with former California Rep. Eric Swalwell to attend the Super Bowl, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records and an anonymous source reported on by Politico.
Gallego and Swalwell were best friends for about a decade, but that relationship ended with the sexual misconduct and assault claims raised against Swalwell earlier this year amid his short-lived campaign for California governor.
That anonymous source claimed that Gallego treated campaign money like “his personal slush fund […] to live a luxury lifestyle.”
The Super Bowl took place several weeks after Gallego announced his campaign to take over for then-departing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Gallego and Swalwell gathered up key staff and donors to attend the game, claiming it as a fundraising party for their newly formed (now defunct) joint fundraising committee, “Swallego Victory Fund.”
The highest donations to that fund were all made in the days leading up to Gallego’s Super Bowl watch party.
Top donors gave $5,000 to $10,000 each: Patrick Smith, Axon CEO; Glen Fuller, Mackenzie Capital managing director and COO; Karl OBergh, former Ardurra civil engineer, current director of engineering with True North Studio; David Shimmon, Ichor Systems CEO; Julio Fuentes, SSA executive director based out of Puerto Rico; Miguel Colom-Mena, Nagnoi co-founder; and Wendy and Dina Lapolt, RCA vice president of promotion and attorney, respectively.
Not all attendees paid, as FOIAzona reported.
FOIAzona outlined campaign finance activity by Swalwell that further elaborated the nature of that Super Bowl party. FOIAzona has been building a timeline of Gallego and Swalwell’s relationship going back to the beginning about a decade ago.
In the days leading up to the Super Bowl, Swalwell purchased two $3,300 fundraising event tickets for Ian Lev, founder and CEO of Apollo Labs, an independent third-party laboratory for licensed cannabis operators based out of Scottsdale, and Scott Rouillard, director of global payroll at Graebel Companies, a relocation management company based out of Cave Creek.
Tickets to the joining committee fundraiser cost $5,000, and another $1,000 for a brunch, per an invitation reviewed by Politico.
Of the $56,500 the two raised, over $37,000 went to event tickets and brunch, leaving the joint fundraising committee with about $19,000.
In addition to the 2023 Super Bowl spending, Gallego has spent campaign cash in other ways that critics argue violate FEC rules. Gallego has spent more than $18,000 in funds from his political action committee and campaign on child care since 2019.
Gallego blamed his spending choices on inflation.
“With the rising costs of child care and the burden it has on the budgets of American families, Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House alike regularly travel with their wives and children, as is permitted by the FEC,” said Gallego.
Earlier this month the senator hired Andrew Bates, former deputy press secretary for former President Joe Biden, to handle crisis communications concerning his longtime friendship with Swalwell and a sexual misconduct complaint against him filed with the Ethics Committee.
Gallego has publicly expressed a desire to run for president in 2028, and has been traveling across the country in what appears to be early preparations for a campaign announcement.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | May 4, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
A timeline endeavoring to document Sen. Ruben Gallego’s friendship with the recently resigned congressman accused of rape, Eric Swalwell, has been released.
FOIAzona published the “day-by-day” timeline dating back to 2009, several years prior to the beginning of Gallego and Swalwell’s friendship. The researcher behind the report, Brian Anderson, said the timeline challenged Gallego’s claim that he never witnessed any improper behavior by Swalwell.
Swalwell resigned from Congress and suspended his campaign for California governor following accusations involving sexual assault and rape.
Gallego has repeatedly denied having ever observed or having any knowledge of Swalwell’s alleged misconduct. The senator did admit that he’d heard rumors over the years alluding to Swalwell’s flirtatiousness, but nothing further. Gallego pulled his endorsement of Swalwell, his longtime best friend, and urged his expulsion within the hour before Swalwell resigned.
Gallego served as the chairman of Swalwell’s brief presidential campaign in 2019, and has been supportive of Swalwell’s AI startup in the past year.
Two incidents tracked in 2009 and 2013 concerned, respectively, a harassment complaint filed against Gallego while he was still chief of staff to a city councilman by a former intern, and a sexual harassment complaint filed against Gallego while he was in the state legislature by two female Democratic lawmakers.
In that former instance, an intern claimed she lost her job as retaliation for filing two complaints about Gallego’s behavior. The city maintained that the intern was one of dozens of employees let go due to budget cuts.
In the latter instance, State Rep. Lydia Hernandez (D-LD24) and State Sen. Catherine Miranda (D-LD11) accused Gallego of issuing sexual remarks toward the pair.
The timeline tracked well over 200 days of interactions between Gallego and Swalwell. Most of the documented interactions occurred from 2015 onward.
Gallego and Swalwell became friends approximately 10 years ago. The timeline reflected some of their earliest interactions: a congressional campaign donation, launch of the Future Forum caucus, and frequent travels together across the country. The two also issued one of their first joint statements together by calling for a total bailout of all student loans.
Approximately a year-and-a-half into his friendship with Swalwell, Gallego filed for divorce from then-councilwoman, now-Mayor Kate Gallego about one month before she was due to give birth to their son in December 2016. The pair had been together for over 15 years.
According to court records first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Kate Gallego had not seen the divorce coming. The pair had been together since 2001, when they met at a date auction fundraiser for 9/11 first responders while attending Harvard University. They got engaged at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and married in 2010.
As AZ Free News reported earlier this month, Gallego also faced accusations of sexual misconduct. The senator was accused of engaging in sexual romps in the House office building’s basement storage rooms. Gallego has denied the allegations.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna claimed an accuser of Gallego’s has planned to come forward with attorneys. That purported accuser has yet to materialize.
The fall from grace by Gallego’s best friend came days after the senator interviewed with press about his intentions to make a presidential run in 2028.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Mar 18, 2026 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Gov. Katie Hobbs fired an Arizona State Board of Education (ASBE) member following pressure from a public school activist group, email records revealed.
The emails obtained and published by FOIAzona revealed that Hobbs heeded a demand from Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) to fire former ASBE member Jenny Clark due to her general support for school choice.
SOSAZ led a ballot initiative in 2022 in an attempt to overturn the legislation that universalized Arizona’s school choice within the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program. The effort was unsuccessful after SOSAZ far overestimated their signature numbers when they turned in their signature sheets.
SOSAZ lobbyist Beth Lewis emailed Hobbs chief of staff Chad Campbell and deputy chief of staff Lourdes Pena in January of last year with the demand to fire Clark and another board member, Katherine Haley. Lewis alleged the pair were “anti-public school” due to their school choice affiliations.
Lewis recommended Hobbs replace Clark with an ESA parent of a special needs student, suggesting Kathy Boltz, a member of the SOSAZ board. Haley’s recommended replacement was Alison Bruening-Hamati, an administrator with the Tempe Elementary School District.
Three days after that initial email, Lewis sent a follow-up email to stress the urgency of both Clark and Haley’s removals, citing an upcoming (at the time) ASBE meeting to update the ESA Parent handbook.
Pena responded that they had “a plan in place to replace Clark,” and that they were holding “more ongoing convos” about Haley. Not much later, the former would be given the boot. For unknown reasons, the latter was permitted to remain on the board.
A little over three weeks later, Clark announced on social media that Hobbs’ office ignored her refusal to resign and notified her of a forthcoming letter confirming the end of her term. When that letter hadn’t arrived six days later, Clark again posted online to notify of the absence of the letter. Within hours, the governor’s office sent a letter notifying Clark that she had been replaced since her term had expired.
Several other members of the board were serving on expired terms when Hobbs ousted Clark. However, in a letter last March announcing the appointment of Lupita Hightower to replace former ASBE board member Anna Tovar, Hobbs’ office claimed no other ASBE members were serving expired terms. However, that was not true.
Haley, now the president, had her term expire last January. Both vice president Scott Hagerman and Jason Catanese had their terms expire in January 2024.
At the time of Hobbs’ letter last March, Karla Phillips-Krivickas and Jacqui Clay had unexpired terms. However, both of their terms expired this January.
Hightower did not replace Clark. Kathleen Wiebke, whose term was set to expire in 2029, replaced Clark last March but passed away in December.
ASBE also has two vacancies at present, one seat for a public member and one seat for a charter school administrator.
In all, five of the 11 board members are serving on expired terms and two are vacant.
Lewis, the author of the emails, responded that the publishing of her emails was “hilariously stupid” and accused the women she sought to remove from ASBE as “working to destroy public education.”
“[Y]all are just pearl clutching — take luck!” said Lewis.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Mar 14, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Kyrsten Sinema admitted to the allegations of an affair with her security personnel, per a new court filing.
However, the former senator says she shouldn’t be held accountable in court on the technicality that the affair didn’t occur in the state where the wife lived.
The filing was first reported on by Brian Anderson of FOIAzona.
The former senator faces a “homewrecker” lawsuit in North Carolina for her affair with Army veteran Matthew Joseph Ammel (Ammel) filed by his estranged wife Heather Ammel — Ammel v. Sinema.
North Carolina allows the victim of a marital affair to sue the individual who engaged in the affair with their spouse. The Ammels were married for 14 years and had three children prior to their separation.
Sinema believes the lawsuit no longer has grounds since she and Ammel conducted their affair outside of North Carolina. Sinema documented that she and Ammel were physically intimate in Washington, D.C. and other states — California, New York, Colorado, and Arizona — but never North Carolina.
On Thursday, Sinema filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit for lack of personal jurisdiction. Sinema denied that the communications and physical contact constituting her affair with Ammel occurred while Ammel was domiciled and present in his home state of North Carolina. Sinema also denied having any knowledge that Ammel was present in North Carolina with his wife and children when she was contacting him concerning their affair.
Sinema said the affair began at the end of May 2024. Sinema claimed that she believed Ammel had ended his marriage to his wife and had plans to move into a new apartment.
In his declaration, Ammel said his marriage didn’t end until October 2024. According to the deposition of his wife, she attempted to salvage their marriage during those initial months that Sinema and Ammel carried out their affair.
Amid those beginning weeks of separation and prior to an official divorce, Sinema treated Ammel, his wife, and children to a Taylor Swift concert in Florida. Just prior to the first sexual encounter that Sinema admitted, Sinema treated the Ammel family to a U2 concert in late 2023.
The senator denied that certain message exchanges between her and Ammel discussing sexual intimacy leading up to their first tryst were indicative of romantic or intimate involvement, especially since the two hadn’t yet had physical intimacy at the time. In one exchange, Sinema responded to Ammel’s text about starting a “f**k the troops” chant that she would “f**k the hot ones.” In another, Ammel discussed missionary style sex which Sinema called “boring.”
Sinema also denied sending a picture of herself “wrapped in a towel.”
Sinema and Ammel often corresponded using Signal, the encrypted messaging app that has the option to automatically delete messages after a certain period of time.
As reported previously, Ammel’s time as Sinema’s security marked serious security expenditures that far surpassed her colleagues and even presidential candidates. Sinema spent over $1.7 million on her security.
After Sinema left office, Ammel didn’t stray far from her side. The pair have toured together to lobby for the legalization and funding for psychedelic treatment, namely ibogaine: the compounded derivative of an African shrub called the iboga tree.
Ammel was arrested and placed on a psychiatric hold in North Carolina last November for assaulting an officer at a hospital.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 13, 2026 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
New email records reveal the University of Arizona (U of A) misled the public about a donation from Jeffrey Epstein.
Email records first reported on by FOIAzona proved Epstein’s donation was not “anonymous” as U of A’s vice president for communications at the time, Chris Sigurdson, claimed. U of A’s associate vice president of external communications at the time, Pam Scott, also claimed that the university had no knowledge because Epstein was not listed on the board of directors with the charity through which he donated, Gratitude America.
“At the time the donation was made by Gratitude America Ltd., Jeffrey Epstein was not listed on the board of directors and the university was unaware of his involvement,” she said. “We have no plans to repay this contribution.”
However, records reveal Epstein’s name was postmarked on the mailing documents containing the donation check bearing his charity’s name. The donation was made out to the University of Arizona Foundation.
Epstein’s $50,000 donation was made at the request of one U of A professor, Stuart Hameroff.
Hameroff’s team also helped Epstein’s team on where to send the donation. The university, through that professor’s program, gave Epstein’s charity public recognition for the donation.
In March 2017, Hameroff asked Epstein to fund an annual conference he put on through the interdisciplinary entity he founded over 30 years ago, the Center for Consciousness Studies. These conferences have occurred since 1994.
One of the center’s latest major donations was $2 million from a retired Google software developer. These funds align with the purpose of the funds put forth by Epstein: engineering consciousness. (The latest Epstein files release revealed Epstein sought, among his other endeavors into transhumanism, to create a behavioral engineering institute at Stanford University).
Hameroff is a leader with the U of A sciences: he cofounded and chairs the Center for Consciousness Studies, cochairs the Science of Consciousness, and serves as professor emeritus of the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology.
Hameroff didn’t need to provide Epstein with details before the financier pledged a minimum sponsorship of $50,000.
“Who are the speakers and what is the cost?” wrote Epstein. “I’m in for at least $50,000, before knowing anything.”
Epstein’s trust in Hameroff likely stemmed from the personal relationship the pair shared. The Epstein library presently returns multiple records mentioning Hameroff from 2016 through 2018.
Hameroff stayed at one of Epstein’s apartments in New York for multiple days leading up to Halloween in 2016, arranged by Gino Yu, associate professor and director of game development at Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute. Yu referred to Epstein as his “benefactor,” per Hameroff.
Hameroff called the night “memorable” in an email after the fact.
“We appreciate you staying up late with an early flight. We were tired too, but it was a memorable night,” wrote Hameroff.
Yu also wanted James Tagg, an inventor and engineer with Penrose Institute, to attend the October 2016 meeting with Epstein and Hameroff. It’s unclear if Tagg attended. However, Hameroff did later ask Epstein to provide seed money for another project, the Penrose Institute, in May 2017 during discussions of the Center for Consciousness Studies conference.
Other recently released Epstein records revealed that an investment banker and fellow Epstein affiliate, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, directed Epstein to review another consciousness program advised by Hameroff, the Shanghai Science of Consciousness Program. That email exchange took place in February 2017. It appears that program was a reference to a canceled attempt to hold the Center for Consciousness Studies conference in Shanghai, per emails.
“Attached is the Shanghai Science of Consciousness program (Stuart Hameroff put together; I advised),” said Kuhn.
Epstein, via his charity Gratitude America, was featured as a sponsor that “made the conference a reality” per program documents. Emails affirmed this promotion, as well as offers to pay for a hotel room for Epstein’s attendance at the conference.
Another U of A faculty member and famed political activist, Noam Chomsky, was a friend of Epstein as well. Chomsky was included in Epstein’s “little black book.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
