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Arizona AG Opens Investigation Into Maricopa County Over Refusal to Comply With Audit

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has opened an investigation into the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for defying a subpoena from the Arizona Senate.

The GOP-led subpoenas demanded that the board “turn over ballots, routers, and other records,” Business Insider reported.

Brnovich sent notice to Maricopa County with a request for a written response from the county’s Board of Supervisors by 5 p.m. on August 20.

Business Insider reported:

If his office finds that the board has violated a provision of state law or the Arizona Constitution by not complying with the subpoenas, Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich will file an action in the Arizona State Supreme Court, allowing the board 30 days to resolve the violation, the letter said.

The state treasurer will be notified to withhold and redistribute money designated for Maricopa County if the board fails to remedy the violation in time, according to the letter.

Late last month, the Arizona Senate issued two new subpoenas to Maricopa County and Dominion Voting Systems for materials needed to complete the forensic audit over the 2020 general election.

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Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors decided not to deliver any more election-related materials or information to the GOP-controlled state Senate.

In a 6-page letter to Kory Langhofer, attorney for Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, county officials said that the election auditors already have some of the information they seek.

The letter added that the auditors hired by Fann may not ever receive any additional information at this time.

Maricopa County attorney Allister Adel claimed in the letter that the subpoena may not be lawful because he claims it was issued while the state Senate was out of session.

In a separate letter to Langhofer, a lawyer representing Dominion Voting Systems said the subpoena the company received was “legally defective.”

Eric Spencer, the lawyer, alleged that the document violated Dominion’s due process rights, its Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures, and its rights under the Arizona Constitution’s Private Affairs Clause.

“Because the Subpoena is illegal and unenforceable, Dominion hopes that litigation over the Subpoena will not be necessary. Should litigation result, however, Dominion intends to pursue all remedies available to it, including (but not necessarily limited to) recovery of its attorneys’ fees, expenses, and damages” under state law, Spencer said.

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The drama in Maricopa County, Arizona, continues.

Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann recently revealed that the audit of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County has uncovered a slew of questionable practices that cannot go unchecked.

One of the most shocking revelations came when Fann revealed that ballots had been shoved into boxes and presented to the auditors.

“The ballots, when they showed up, literally, they are in boxes that are literally just stuffed in there,” Fann said. “They’re supposed to be organized. There’s supposed to be these pink sheets between that says there are certain numbers there, a certain number of ballots there. There weren’t.”

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“So the auditor, literally, in trying to preserve everything the exact way it is, had to, like, very carefully take [the ballots] out to do what we needed to make sure we put them back exactly as we found them, even though it was a mess,” Fann added.

“They withheld the blue tally sheets,” she said. “We have not gotten the chain of custody [documentation for ballots]. We have not gotten the routers, the passcodes, the fobs.”

Fann also revealed that Maricopa County officials have not even been able to access certain necessary information.

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