Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office informed the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in a letter sent on Friday that it has launched an investigation into allegations the county has not “compl[ied] with valid and enforceable legislative subpoenas that originated from the AZ State Senate.”
The investigation was launched in response to a legislative request from Arizona State Senate Majority Whip Sonny Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu City). Under Arizona law, the Attorney General is required to initiate an investigation into any request for investigation filed with its office by a state legislator.
The letter, addressed to Thomas P. Liddy, Esq. of the Civil Services Division of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, was signed by Arizona Deputy Solicitor General Michael S. Catlett
“The Request alleges that MCBOS [the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors] is acting in conflict” with Arizona statutes that require compliance with subpoenas issued by the Arizona State Senate for information from the November 2020 election needed for the completion of the forensic audit initiated by that legislative body on April 23, the letter states.
It notes that Arizona law states
At the request of one or more members of the legislature the attorney general shall investigate any ordinance, regulation, order, or other offical action adopted or taken by the governing body of a county, city, or town the member alleges violates state law or the Constitution of Arizona.
“The Office [of the Attorney General] will now conduct an investigation and prepare a report that, under the statute, must be completed within 30 days,” the letter continued.
The letter outlines three possible outcomes of the investigation:
- If MCBOS has not violated any provision of state law or the Arizona Constitution, the Attorney General’s Office will take no further action.
- If MCBOS may have violated a provision of state law or the Arizona Constitution, the Attorney General will file an action in the Arizona Supreme Court.
- If MCBOS has violated a provision of state law or the Arizona Constitution, the Attorney General’s Office will give MCBOS 30 days to correct the violation. If at the end of the 30 days MCBOS has not made the correction, the Attorney General will notify the State Treasurer to withhold state funds from the county. (emphasis added)
The Attorney General’s office gave MCBOS until August 20 to voluntarily provide a written response.
“The Arizona state Senate subpoenaed Maricopa County officials for additional November 2020 election audit information on Monday,” as Breitbart News reported on July 27.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors refused to respond to that subpoena in this defiant response, signed by Jack Sellers, Chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors:
It is now August of 2021. The election of November 2020 is over. If you haven’t figured out that the election in Maricopa County was free, fair and accurate yet, I’m not sure you ever will. The reason you haven’t finished your “audit” is because you hired people who have no experience and little understanding of how professional elections are run.
The Board has real work to do and little time to entertain this adventure in never-never land. Please finish whatever it is that you are doing and release whatever it is you are going to release. I am confident that our staff and volunteers ran the election as presecribed by federal and state law. There was no fraud, there wasn’t an injection of ballots from Asia nor was there a satellite that beamed votes into our election equipment. It’s time for all elected officials to tell the truth and stop encouraging conspiracies.
The announcement of the investigation is the latest development in the contentious relationship between the Arizona State Senate and Maricopa County officials since even before the forensic election audit began on April 23.
Sources familiar with the audit process tell Breitbart News the final report is expected to be submitted by September, though that timeline may be extended depending on the results of the most recent subpoena requests and the Attorney General’s investigation.
In June, Attorney General Brnovich announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona.
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