by Staff Reporter | Jan 31, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The first statement from the new chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, Sergio Arellano, focused on the “radical” recent actions by Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes.
Arellano addressed Hobbs’ repudiation of Mayes’ remarks concerning ICE agents and protesters.
“Governor Katie Hobbs is so radical that she just vetoed tax relief for struggling families, but even she finds Kris Mayes too radical,” stated Arellano. “Voters elected President Trump on the promise that he would deport criminal illegal aliens, and he is keeping that promise, including thousands of violent offenders, rapists, and murderers. Our ICE officers are following orders and protecting our communities. We stand by our officers and urge these violent agitators and leaders, like Mayes, who encourage them with reckless rhetoric, to stop putting our men and women in blue in harm’s way.”
Arellano was elected over the weekend despite low party attendance, prolonged delays, and organizational challenges, as AZ Free News reported. Arellano is an Army combat veteran and Republican activist.
Earlier this month the attorney general claimed in an interview with 12News that Arizonans had the right to shoot masked federal law enforcement based on the state’s stand your ground law.
“[I]f you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property that you can defend yourself with lethal force,” said Mayes.
In the days that followed the airing of her legal defense for would-be shooters, Mayes’ law enforcement liaison resigned. Now, the governor has some criticism for the attorney general.
In an interview with Capitol Media Services on Thursday, Hobbs refused to defend Mayes’ remarks. She said the attorney general’s comments were “inappropriate” and advised her to retract her statement. The governor indicated Mayes’ remarks were endangering law enforcement officers.
“It is the responsibility of every elected official to turn down the temperature and do everything we can to be very careful with our language about ramping up the potential for violence,” said Hobbs. “We are seeing across the county people’s fear increasing and the potential for violence.”
Mayes’ spokesman Richie Taylor responded that Hobbs misunderstood the attorney general, that her positing a defense of lethal force against a masked ICE agent doesn’t equate to making it legal to shoot a cop.
Taylor said Hobbs should be more concerned about the alleged public safety threat posed by President Donald Trump’s mass immigration enforcement efforts.
“The actions of Donald Trump’s federal agents are endangering public safety and putting local and state law enforcement and the public in danger,” said Taylor. “And that is what should concern the governor.”
Following widespread bipartisan flak over her rhetoric, Mayes issued a video defending her remarks as a mischaracterization by “right-wing media.” Mayes said her remarks had more to do with speaking out against alleged ongoing abuses of power and violations of the Constitution.
“Arizonans do not want masked agents entering their homes without warrants. It is un-American and it threatens the rights and safety of everyone in our state,” said Mayes. “We have all witnessed the increasingly chaotic and dangerous activity of ICE agents in cities across the country.”
Republican lawmakers in the state legislature have advanced a resolution urging Mayes to resign over the comments. The Senate passed the resolution on Thursday.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Nov 30, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Senate President and AG candidate Warren Petersen says that Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes is overseeing a “culture of corruption,” pointing to a federal probe request and the arrest of a top aide as signs of a deepening crisis inside the Attorney General’s Office.
In a statement emailed by his campaign, Petersen said a “pattern of misconduct, corruption, and political weaponization” had taken root under Mayes and now represents “a betrayal of public trust” for Arizona families, law enforcement, and state institutions.
Petersen highlighted two recent developments: a formal request from U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh for a federal investigation into alleged bribery and prosecutorial misconduct and the arrest of Mayes’ state government division chief, Vanessa Hickman, on felony charges linked to stolen property.
Hamadeh Seeks Federal Probe Into Alleged ‘Pay-to-Play’ Scheme
Petersen’s statement leans heavily on a recent move by Congressman Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ08), who has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what he calls a “coordinated bribery and prosecutorial misconduct scheme” involving Mayes, the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA), and the States United Democracy Center (SUDC).
In a detailed letter, Hamadeh pointed to court filings in the ongoing alternate electors prosecution and alleged that DAGA sent a total of $200,000 to Mayes’ political operation during key points in the case:
- $50,000 shortly after Mayes retained SUDC in May 2023
- $150,000 shortly after indictments were announced in April 2024
Hamadeh argued that the timing raises “significant concerns about quid pro quo arrangements,” and criticized what he described as an “unprecedented attorney-client relationship” between the Attorney General’s Office and SUDC, a politically aligned nonprofit tied to national Democratic legal networks.
“Many of the individuals involved in this scheme have engaged in highly questionable activity, and as I wrote in my letter to Attorney General Bondi, their rogue and unethical conduct is not isolated to Arizona,” Hamadeh said.
“As a former prosecutor, it is unimaginable to me that these officers of the court allegedly conspired to deny citizens their fundamental constitutional rights. Yet, it appears that is exactly what happened.”
The Department of Justice has not publicly indicated whether it will open a formal investigation, and Mayes’ office has not yet issued a direct response to Hamadeh’s allegations, according to recent coverage.
Mayes Division Chief Arrested on Felony Charges
The second case cited by Petersen is the arrest of Vanessa Hickman, who served as state government division chief under Mayes. Hickman was arrested last week by U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents and faces two felony counts of “controlling and trafficking stolen property” tied to a misdelivered package containing roughly $40,000 in jewelry, according to Phoenix New Times.
In a statement to the outlet, Mayes’s spokesman, Richie Taylor, said, “The allegations against Ms. Hickman are serious for any state employee, particularly someone in a leadership position.”
Hickman was placed on administrative leave after federal authorities notified the Attorney General’s Office of the investigation, and later resigned. However, she was still listed on the agency’s website as of this week, the Times reported.
Petersen argued that Hickman’s brush with the law was preceded by “serious allegations against Hickman—including fraud, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty.”
“Mayes’ office had been warned by the city of Peoria nearly two years earlier about serious allegations against Hickman—including fraud, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty—yet Mayes kept her in a position of authority,” the statement said.
Before joining Mayes’ team in January 2023, Hickman served as Peoria’s city attorney. The City of Peoria later sued Hickman over a six-figure severance, accusing her of unjust enrichment linked to a $139,000 payout the city says she wasn’t entitled to, according to the Arizona Republic.
According to an Arizona Daily Independent report, Peoria Mayor Jason Beck sent a letter to Mayes in March warning about those allegations and urging the Attorney General to investigate. Mayes declined the request and dismissed it as a “political stunt.”
“These incidents are not accidents,” Petersen said of both the Hamadeh complaint and Hickman’s arrest. “They are the direct result of failed leadership and a culture of corruption that Kris Mayes has allowed to take root in the Attorney General’s Office.”
Hickman has previously pushed back on Peoria’s claims. She filed a defamation countersuit against city officials over their communications with Mayes’ office, which was dismissed by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Jan. 7, according to court records and local reporting per AZCentral.
The current criminal case against Hickman has been submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for a charging decision. However, county prosecutors said they had not yet received it as of last week, according to Phoenix New Times.
“I will restore honesty, transparency, and integrity,” Petersen said in his release. “I will rebuild trust with law enforcement and put the full weight of the Attorney General’s Office back where it belongs—behind the safety, security, and rights of Arizona families. This race is about defending every neighborhood, rural community, border town, and law-abiding Arizonan.”
On his campaign site, Petersen frames his bid as an effort to “restore trust to Arizona’s Attorney General Office” and to enforce the law “as written—not based on politics or personal opinion,” emphasizing backing for law enforcement, crime-victim rights, and protecting Arizona’s sovereignty against “unconstitutional mandates, burdensome regulations, and attacks on our rights.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Ethan Faverino | Nov 17, 2025 | News
By Ethan Faverino |
The Goldwater Institute has filed a lawsuit against Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, demanding the release of consumer records tied to the AG’s 2024 antitrust lawsuit against nine major residential landlords and RealPage, Inc.
Filed on November 12, 2025, in Maricopa County Superior Court, the suit accuses the Democratic attorney general’s office of violating Arizona’s public records law by refusing to disclose basic information about complaints, or lack thereof, that prompted the state’s allegations of an illegal rent price-fixing conspiracy affecting hundreds of thousands of renters in Phoenix and Tucson metros.
Stacy Skankey, litigation director for the Goldwater Institute’s American Freedom Network, noted that there was no mention of any actual consumer complaints.
Skankey emphasized that Goldwater takes no position on the underlying antitrust claims. Instead, it seeks only aggregate data: the total number of consumer complaints received by the AG’s office regarding RealPage and the defendant landlords, including any unsolicited submissions.
The Goldwater Institute first requested the records in April 2024. After months of silence, the AG’s office issued a denial in January 2025. Follow-up attempts went unanswered, prompting Wednesday’s legal action.
“It should be very easy to comply with, and yet, you know, after this long, drawn-out process, here we are now having to demand that these be produced,” stated Skankey.
The Center Square reported that when it contacted the Attorney General’s Office, the agency responded that it had produced all documents required under state law.
Kris Mayes’ communications director, Richie Taylor, also told The Center Square, “Attorney General Mayes is proud to have taken on major corporate landlords and RealPage for allegedly orchestrating a price-fixing scheme that drove up rents for families across Arizona.”
Skankey responded, saying she and her team disagree with the statements made by the AG’s office, and there is no proof they complied with the state public records law.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Sep 27, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Court of Appeals declined to accept Attorney General Kris Mayes’ appeal to prosecute President Donald Trump’s 2020 electors.
The appeals court order said in a brief ruling that, based on its “discretion,” it would not overturn a superior court ruling requiring Mayes to again secure an indictment from a grand jury.
This determination comes just four months after the Maricopa County Superior Court remanded Mayes’ case back to the grand jury.
The judge found that Mayes violated due process when seeking felony indictments for conspiracy, fraud, and forgery against 11 Trump electors.
According to the ruling, Mayes’ failure to give the grand jury a document critical to the electors’ defense, the Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA), before securing the indictment deprived the 2020 electors of due process. The ruling meant, effectively, that Mayes had to redo her entire case.
The 2020 electors argued they acted lawfully and in good faith under the ECA.
The attorney general attempted to justify withholding the full text of the ECA from the grand jury by citing the inclusion of “relevant portions” dispersed through memorandums, an interview, a letter, and an article from CNN. The judge declined to accept that select passages of the ECA contextualized in disparate works were equal to the document in its unabridged entirety.
“A prosecutor has a duty to instruct the grand jury on all the law applicable to the facts of the case,” stated the judge. “Due process compels the prosecutor to make a fair and impartial presentation to the grand jury. … Because the State failed to provide the ECA to the grand jury, the Court finds that the defendants were denied a substantial procedural right as guaranteed by Arizona law.”
In order to prosecute the 2020 electors, the superior court ruled, Mayes would have to disclose the full ECA to a grand jury before securing an indictment.
Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda said Mayes is unfit for office due to her focus on lawfare against political opponents distracting from criminal prosecutions.
“Arizona families deserve an Attorney General who prosecutes criminals, not political opponents,” said Swoboda. “Five years later, Kris Mayes is still fixated on 2020 while violent crime, fentanyl trafficking, and border chaos threaten our communities every single day. This obsession is not justice — it’s politics.”
A spokesman for Mayes would not say to reporters whether they would appeal to the state supreme court. However, Mayes’ communications director, Richie Taylor, rejected Swoboda’s accusation in a statement.
“This case has never been about anything other than preserving democracy and upholding the rule of law,’’ said Taylor. “Pretending it’s politically motivated is just a convenient way for the GOP chair to distract from the facts of the case.’’
This statement was among the first public comments issued by Taylor since deleting his social media accounts after his online commentary emerged on Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Tyler Bowyer, the CEO of Turning Point Action (the political action arm of TPUSA) and indicted elector in Mayes’ case, expressed relief at Monday’s ruling and scorn for Mayes’ continued expenditure of public funding on this case.
“Another huge loss for the radical AG who has wasted millions of AZ taxpayer dollars!” posted Bowyer on X.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Sep 20, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona AG Kris Mayes’ Communications Director Richie Taylor deleted his X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn accounts after screenshots of his alleged posts surfaced on “groypers” and “violence on the right.”
Corey A. DeAngelis, a Senior Advisor with Americans For Fair Treatment, shared a screenshot allegedly taken from Taylor’s X account, which read, “Lots of people learning about groyper’s tonight because of violence on the right in this country.”
The post appeared to advance the unsubstantiated theory that Charlie Kirk’s assassin, Tyler Robinson, is a member of online commentator Nick Fuentes’ fan base, known as “groypers,” who have rhetorically feuded with Kirk and Turning Point USA over the years.
As reported by the Associated Press, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray revealed Tuesday that evidence, including a text confession and a note, shows the suspect targeted Charlie Kirk, stating, “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” and “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”
The comments would seem to preclude the assassin from views that could be “on the right,” as Taylor’s alleged post suggested. Gray declined to address whether Kirk was targeted due to his views on transgenderism on Tuesday, telling reporters, “That is for a jury to decide.”
Last month, Taylor came under public scrutiny for “vicious ad hominem attacks” against Jenny Clark, founder of Love Your School, a nonprofit that advocates for parental rights, school choice, and resources for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) and special education students.
Following the incident, Clark posted an update saying, “Update: the Head of Communications for @AZAGMayes, @richietaylor – has deleted posts against me which were extremely aggressive, untrue, unprovoked and vicious ad hominem attacks. I make policy arguments supported by available facts, they prefer to personally attack people.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
