Monday, January 31, 2022
WASHINGTON —The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol subpoenaed on Friday 14 people from seven states who participated as fake electors following the 2020 presidential election.
Groups from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all allegedly sent in lists of so-called alternate electors to the National Archives.
The groups had met in December 2020 to sign documents assigning their respective states’ Electoral College votes to former President Donald Trump — though their states actually voted to elect Joe Biden as president.
Various Republicans then urged the Trump administration to use the slates of bogus electors as a reason to block the certification of the election during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has subpoenaed the chairperson and secretary of each of the groups from the seven states.
“The Select Committee is seeking information about attempts in multiple states to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including the planning and coordination of efforts to send false slates of electors to the National Archives,” Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said in a statement.
“We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme.”
The list of individuals contains some high-ranking Republican officials, including Michigan National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, Chairman of the Nevada Republican Party Michael J. McDonald, and Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer.
The other alternate elector subpoenas went to Arizona chair Nancy Cottle, Arizona secretary Loraine B. Pellegrino, Georgia secretary Shawn Still, Michigan secretary Mayra Rodriguez, New Mexico chairperson Jewll Powdrell, New Mexico secretary Deborah W. Maestas, Nevada secretary James DeGraffenreid, Pennsylvania chairperson Bill Bachenberg, Pennsylvania secretary Lisa Patton, Wisconsin chairperson Andrew Hitt and Wisconsin secretary Kelly Ruh.
Cottle and Pellegrino did not respond to requests for comment from the Arizona Mirror.
The subpoenas ask the individuals to provide before Feb. 11 various documents regarding their role in selecting the “alternate” electors and to appear for depositions before the committee at different dates in February.
The subpoenas are part of the Jan. 6 select committee’s ongoing investigation into the attack on the Capitol building that temporarily delayed the certification of the presidential election after rioters attacked and entered the building.
The panel has subpoenaed several high-ranking Trump administration officials, and the House of Representatives held former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with those subpoenas.
The committee has requested information from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican whose refusal to cooperate has led to discussions about whether the panel should subpoena him as well.
The select committee’s letters to the “alternate electors” said its members were not seeking information about political views or activities in the 2020 presidential campaign, but information about their “role and participation in the purported slate of electors casting votes for Donald Trump and, to the extent relevant, your role in the events of January 6, 2021.”
The special master who is overseeing the examination of Maricopa County’s routers as part of the so-called “audit” of the 2020 election has selected his team of experts, and the Senate has provided him with a list of questions it wants answered.
The end goal of the examination is to see whether Maricopa County’s election equipment was ever connected to the internet, as proponents of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election have insisted. The county has repeatedly denied the allegations, and audits it conducted of its election equipment confirmed as much in early 2021.
Some proponents of the false allegations that the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump have espoused wild theories that election systems in Arizona and other swing states that President Joe Biden won were hacked so that votes could be changed. Senate President Karen Fann and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Warren Petersen subpoenaed the routers and Splunk logs as part of their “audit,” despite a lack of evidence that the county’s ballot tabulation machines or other parts of its election system were ever connected to the internet.
Two pieces of equipment that the Senate’s “audit” team said were connected to the internet were election department web servers that are supposed to be connected, and which aren’t connected to the election management system, the county said.
John Shadegg, a former Republican congressman whom the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Fann chose as the special master in September, announced his three-person team on Friday.
The Jan. 6 Arizona ties keep growing … The number of bills filed by the Arizona Legislature does, too … And we're going to act like we've never committed a typo.
Two Arizonans were among a list of 14 people across seven states who were subpoenaed by the Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol for signing on to slates of fake electors saying Trump won their states instead of Biden.
Members of Congress want to talk to Republicans Nancy Cottle and Lorraine Pellegrino, which the fake slate listed as chair and secretary. Other signees included Arizona Rep. Jake Hoffman and candidates for public office Jim Lamon and Anthony Kern, as well as Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward and her husband.
"We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information about how these so-called alternate electors met and who was behind that scheme. We encourage them to cooperate with the Select Committee's investigation to get answers about January 6th for the American people and help ensure nothing like that day ever happens again." — U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Jan. 6 committee
But don’t expect Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to get involved in the fake electors issue, unlike the Michigan AG. He’s instead relying on his longtime friend, the federal government, to sort out the issue. On Mike Broomhead’s show, he said the Biden administration has told him to “pound sand” on most issues (and vice versa), so people with concerns about the fake electors should address them to the Department of Justice instead of him.
And speaking of the election that happened two calendar years ago, Cyber Ninjas owner Doug Logan finally showed up in court. The bar is so low, it’s on the floor. He’s still not turning over records, he told the judge at a deposition last week, according to the Republic’s attorney who told the Republic.
He wants a “clear” ruling that he can then appeal to a higher court, apparently something clearer than one telling him to turn over records or face $50,000 in daily fines. But the records aren’t at risk and are all backed up, he said, according to the lawyer who told the Republic. (OK, we’ll stop doing this, it’s only funny once, maybe twice, that this all is conveyed via a game of telephone because the deposition wasn’t open to the general public.)
Friday, January 28, 2022
Arizonan businesses would be on the hook for half a million dollars in damages if they refuse a religious exemption from an employee who later experiences significant injury as a result of getting vaccinated under a proposal advancing in the GOP-controlled legislature.
Employers who both deny a religious exemption and require a vaccination for continued employment would open themselves up to lawsuits from employees who report adverse effects. If employees sue, they stand to gain a minimum of $500,000 — more if the court finds the damages and costs of the lawsuit are higher. By contrast, the average worker’s compensation settlement is around $20,000.
House Bill 2043, introduced by Prescott Republican Rep. Quang Nguyen, was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning. From there, it’ll move to the full House of Representatives for consideration.
Donny Rodenkirk, from Nguyen’s district, told the committee that his wife’s employer denied her religious exemption request, which forced her to take a vaccine that he claimed negatively impacted her health, resulting in the sudden onset of seizures.
Nguyen’s bill does not indicate who decides whether the reported injury was the result of vaccination or how that determination is made. No medical diagnosis is required to sue an employer.
Tom Savage, a lobbyist for the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, noted that the bill isn’t clear about what constitutes a “significant injury” related to a vaccination, which could lead to costly litigation because it’s left open to interpretation. Deciding which injuries are caused by the vaccine is also muddy, given injuries could arise from a host of unrelated factors.
“We believe this bill could subject taxpayers to pay for unsubstantiated injury claims,” he said.
Serious adverse effects from the vaccine are incredibly rare. One case study of a man with sudden onset non-motor seizures after being vaccinated was unable to link the two, and posited instead that the condition may have been caused by genetic factors and might be entirely unrelated to the vaccine. An investigation of more than 19,500 recently vaccinated adults found the incidence of very serious adverse effects to be extremely low. Allergic reactions occurred in just 0.3% of participants after the first dose.
In spite of scarce evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine causes adverse effects, skepticism about its safety persists. A Census Bureau survey found that vaccine hesitancy in Arizona was around 11.1% in October of last year. In a state of more than 7 million, that’s a little over 800,000 Arizonans who have reservations about the vaccine. Among this subgroup, 58.8% didn’t trust the vaccines themselves and 50.2% cited mistrust of the government.
Mike Huckins, the chief lobbyist for the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, said approving the bill would have consequences for local businesses.
“Employees already have a remedy through the worker’s compensation fund,” he said.
HB2043 allows for damages awarded in addition to any worker’s compensation the employee may pursue — it doesn’t rule out access to it. The $500,000 in damages would be a sizable financial burden for most businesses, Huckins said. The potential harm makes no distinction between a business of two people and a business of 5,000.
Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, responded by asking if it was moral to hold someone’s job “hostage” until they were vaccinated against their will. Huckins said he recognized there were very personal beliefs at stake, but his organization is defending employer’s rights. Employees’ religious beliefs are already protected under state law, he noted.
One-time Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan yesterday pulled perhaps the most surprising stunt of his short-lived career as a rogue election auditor without any experience in elections or audits: He showed up for his deposition.
The last time he was summoned to testify about blowing off court orders to turn over public records, he blew it off. But this time, Logan was facing the threat of arrest this time, so maybe it’s really not that surprising that he decided to sit for a five-hour deposition with lawyers for American Oversight and the Arizona Republic.
Depositions are unfortunately not livestreamed for reporters‘ enjoyment, so we’re all just hoping it comes out soon so we can binge it over the weekend.
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Arizona Republicans this week lined up behind a measure that would discipline teachers and open them up to lawsuits if they don’t tell parents everything a student tells them — even if the student confides that he or she is gay or transgender.
The legislation, House Bill 2161, would make it illegal for a government employee to withhold information that is “relevant to the physical, emotional or mental health of the parent’s child,” and specifically prevents teachers from withholding information about a student’s “purported gender identity” or a request to transition to a gender other than the “student’s biological sex.”
The bill would allow parents to sue school districts if teachers don’t comply.
Rep. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix, the bill’s sponsor, argued in the House Education Committee on Jan. 25 that the aim of the legislation is to reign in surveys sent out by schools that have made headlines in a number of states and locally. The bill also aims to allow parents additional access to certain medical records.
“I still feel this bill is not ready for prime time,” Rep. Daniel Hernandez, D-Tucson, said, adding that he felt there was some merit to schools surveying students. “This bill could’ve been done without this inclusion or without the trivialization of transgender children.”
Maybe the real laws are the racists we meet along the way ... Resignations all around ... And watch where you protest.
Some of Arizona’s MAGA-est legislators introduced their fantasy legislation to eliminate voting as most Arizonans know it and allow lawmakers to decide election results instead.
House Bill 2596 is a multifaceted assault on the concept of democracy, but the top headline-grabbers are provisions to:
Outlaw mail voting and severely restrict early in-person voting
Require humans, rather than machines, to count the millions of ballots cast on Election Day within 24 hours
Require the legislature to approve or reject the results of every election
It’s hard to overstate the audacity of lawmakers trying to give themselves authority to deny our elections, or their brazenness in trying to outlaw a secure mail-in ballot system that more than 80% of voters utilize. It’s equally hard to understate the amount of disinformation required to believe that elections would be more secure and accurate if we allowed results to be ordained by thousands of volunteers essentially counting on their fingers.
But sometimes the point of a bill isn’t to become law. It’s to signal to your base that you hear them. And it’s clear which portion of the base Fillmore and others were trying to satisfy with HB2596.3+ million ballots with 20 to 100 contests on each one and hand counted by what would easily be around 16,000 people with a 9pm deadline for results when polls close at 7 and no one who supports this thinks that adjudicating these properly won't be an issue?
— The AZ - abc15 - Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) January 26, 2022
Luckily, the bill isn’t going to become law. The first clue is its main sponsor: House GOP backbencher John Fillmore, who described the bill to Capitol scribe Howie Fischer as a return to “1958-style voting,” presumably without a hint of self-awareness. House Speaker Rusty Bowers — who stood up to the former president’s lies early on and never backed down — hasn’t even assigned the bill to committee, though that could change.
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Photo by Kennedy Library | Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0
Republicans on Tuesday backed a bill that would ban books like “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “1984” and “The Great Gatsby” from Arizona schools because they contain frank descriptions of sex and sexuality, and that critics say would effectively make it illegal to teach about homosexuality.
The legislation bans schools from teaching or directing students to study any material that is “sexually explicit,” which the bill defines as “masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks or if such person is female, breast.”
An amendment was added to the bill by Rep. Michelle Udall, R-Mesa, that allowed for classical literature, early American literature and literature needed for college credit to still be allowed — but only with parental consent.
“We didn’t want it to get overly burdensome and exempt literature that is important,” Udall said, adding that they still wanted to give parents the ability to “opt out” of the literature with sexually explicit material.
Although Udall repeatedly described her amendment as a way for parents to opt their children out of “explicit” schoolwork, it actually requires parents to opt their children into the work — meaning it would be illegal to teach to all students by default.
Banning books is cool again ... Everyone wants to be a fake elector ... And because of term limits, nobody remembers the law of unintended consequences.
In Arizona’s latest attempt to find any adult bodies to put in front of classrooms of 30-plus screaming children, the State Board of Education this week rolled back regulations on substitute teachers.
The new rules allow emergency subs (humans holding a GED or higher) to teach for two years and remove the ban on districts essentially using certified subs as permanent teachers.
School administrators pleaded for the stopgap solutions to pandemic strains, noting schools are still seeing massive COVID-related teacher absences and increasing full-on classroom vacancies as teachers catch the quitting bug.
Dysart Unified Superintendent Quinn Kellis, for example, told the board that his district had 200 teacher vacancies and 60 substitutes on Monday. (For all you kids with math teachers out sick right now, that’s 140 vacant classrooms in one district.)
“We have vacancies just on an interim basis, but also we have many who are just leaving their jobs for the rest of the year. And it’s not that they wouldn't have continued under normal circumstances, but these are not normal circumstances,” Kellis said.
But after a decade of weakening regulations on who is fit to lead a classroom, a few more tweaks to substitute teacher rules clearly isn’t going to solve Arizona’s teacher shortage crisis.
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
