One year ago this week, we filed records requests for records related to Arizona’s partisan election “audit.” Now, the Senate is still fighting transparency. But we’ve already uncovered thousands of records that show three key things. Here are a lot of receipts. #FoiaFriday
First, the Trump administration and its intermediaries were involved from the beginning in urging the Arizona Senate to discredit the election results by claiming there was widespread fraud.
On Nov. 14, 2020, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann emailed colleagues and said: “We are working with our Congressmen, State Party, Boards of Supervisors, Trump team etc to either prove or disprove concerns.”
documentcloud.org/documents/2107…
On Dec. 2, Sen. Fann told a constituent she had “spoken with Mayor Giuliani at least 6 times over the past two weeks.” She also mentioned a private meeting with Giuliani and the Trump legal team.
documentcloud.org/documents/2079…
On Dec. 4, Christina Bobb of the right-wing outlet OAN emailed Fann with “affidavits” from Rudy Giuliani alleging fraud.
documentcloud.org/documents/2079…
On Dec. 28, Fann told a constituent she had “been in numerous conversations with Rudy [Giuliani] over the past two weeks trying to get this done. I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.”
Second, hardcore partisans and conspiracists were involved in the planning and execution of the "audit."
We uncovered a Jan. 25 email from conspiracy theorist Jovan Pulitzer, the likely source of the false claim that fraudulent ballots had been shipped in from Asia. The email from Pulitzer appears to be a follow-up from a call with Fann.
Pulitzer outlined what his team would do: “All that my team does is high-speed scan in all ballots in their native state … and allow machines to inspect without bias and produce a report.”
documentcloud.org/documents/2079…
Fann forwarded the email to Sen. Warren Petersen, and Eddie Farnsworth, a former state senator who prior to leaving office in January had issued the original subpoenas to Maricopa County for the ballots and election materials.
On April 6, @protctdemocracy sent a letter to Cyber Ninjas and other contractors, demanding that the groups cease any planned direct outreach to voters, which was mentioned in Cyber Ninjas’ statement of work.
Fann forwarded the letter to Josh Barnett, a candidate for U.S. Congress who has posted frequently about the Q Anon conspiracy theory. “Now I know they are worried,” Fann wrote.
documentcloud.org/documents/2079…
Fann also forwarded to “audit” leaders a Sept. 14 email regarding “7825 dead voters” that the writer claimed were found by Pulitzer.
documentcloud.org/documents/2107…
Finally, by design, the "audit" was crowdsourced and funded through opaque dark money groups.
We obtained an early statement of work dated March 3, which includes a reference to an in-person canvassing operation led by former state legislative candidate Liz Harris and Bobby Piton (now a U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois) as part of the “Electronic Voting System Team.”
This version of the statement of work indicated that funding would be provided by “patriots across the country” who “have desired for this audit to take place and have contributed funds to make that happen and lessen the load on the State of Arizona.”
We uncovered texts between “audit” spokesman Randy Pullen and Trump campaign COO Jeff DeWit. DeWit asked about where to send $175k and Pullen suggested the Guardian Defense Fund.
azmirror.com/blog/a-gop-law…
On July 28, Pullen discussed payments totaling $1 million with Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who had assisted with Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.
documentcloud.org/documents/2105…
Now, nearly a year after we started our legal fight, we’re still working to uncover the facts about Arizona’s “audit.” americanoversight.org/investigation/…
In February, the Arizona Supreme Court agreed to hear the state Senate’s appeal of lower court rulings rejecting the Senate’s overly broad claim of legislative privilege, which it had attempted to use to justify withholding records.
In May, the Arizona Supreme Court will hear the Senate’s appeal.
Learn more about what we’ve exposed about the sham “audit” by reading our full, detailed report here:
americanoversight.org/how-the-arizon…
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