Arizona lawmakers point fingers over allowing 'defamatory' testimony

PHOENIX — House Speaker Ben Toma blasted a Chandler lawmaker for inviting someone “to present unsubstantiated and defamatory allegations” at a legislative hearing last week on elections.

The presenter, without any factual backing, accused the governor, state lawmakers, county supervisors and others of taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.

But the president of the Senate said the House is responsible, at least in part, for what happened at the daylong hearing.

The allegations of who is to blame surround the presentations arranged by Republican Rep. Liz Harris, an election denier. She had lined up several witnesses who were supposed to update lawmakers on issues related to the 2020 and 2022 elections.

The hearing featured Scottsdale insurance agent Jacqueline Breger, who was given nearly 45 minutes to accuse dozens of officials and private citizens of taking bribes.

Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said Monday that he had asked that all materials be reviewed by Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, ahead of time.

“That was not shared with him and was a surprise to the committee,” Petersen said.

“I assure you, had he known about the report (Breger planned to present), he would not allow it to be included,” Petersen said. “It was definitely not the proper venue to make such allegations nor to assess the credibility of such a statement.”

Petersen, in washing his hands of responsibility, said, “I imagine the House will discuss how to deal with it.”

‘So did he’

Toma, for his part, is refusing to take the blame for allowing the hearing to go forward.

“So did he,” the speaker told Capitol Media Services of Petersen’s role. “We agreed to it collectively.”

Toma in turn blamed Harris for “bad judgment” in inviting Breger “to present unsubstantiated and defamatory allegations in a legislative forum.”

“I think Ms. Harris needs to address this,” he said.

Harris did not return several messages seeking comment.

Less clear is whether the speaker will take any action against the first-term lawmaker. He has unilateral ability to remove her from the Committee on Municipal Oversight and Elections.

“We’ll see,” Toma said.

Toma is in a difficult political position. He needs the cooperation of every one of the 31 House Republicans to pass the GOP agenda. He did not address whether Harris will be removed from committees or otherwise disciplined.

Democrats sat out hearing

The hearing last week of both the House and Senate elections panels was filled with topics popular with conspiracy theorists. Presentations included the state’s power over federal elections, foreign and domestic national security threats to the state’s electoral system, and one titled “The county is the first line of defense, not the federal government.”

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It was obvious to Democrats on the panel that this was not meant to be a fact-finding mission, so they refused to attend.

“Our constituents did not send us to the Capitol to defame our elections officials, cast doubt on the security of our elections, or mislead the public,” the three Senate Democrats said in a video statement. House Democrats later followed suit.

That left only Republicans to hear the testimony.

Breger’s testimony stood out when she said the governor, several Maricopa County supervisors, 12 Maricopa County Superior Court judges and Mesa Mayor John Giles all had taken bribes that came in the form of money laundered through a scam involving real estate deeds.

She also presented documents to the committee that listed others — including Toma — as guilty of corruption.

The closest she came to citing a source was a reference to a forthcoming book by John Thaler, who has been cited by My Pillow executive and Donald Trump follower Mike Lindell as being a forensic investigator. Thaler has claimed to have reviewed 120,000 documents to back his claims of extensive fraud.

‘He was caught off guard’

Senate also leaders failed to stop Breger’s presentation.

Borrelli was, in fact, at the Thursday hearing. But Petersen said he is not to blame for failing to halt the testimony at any point during its 45-plus minutes.

“He was caught off guard,” Petersen said.

At the end of Breger’s presentation, Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, who chairs the Senate Committee on Elections, called her brave for her testimony, though she said the witness should stay on the topic of elections.

By Sunday, however, Rogers was distancing herself from the whole thing — and from Harris and Breger in particular.

“To our knowledge, none of the people named had charges filed, have proceedings pending, nor had any convictions made against them,” she said in a press release.

But Rogers also made it clear she was not saying the unsubstantiated claims that Breger presented were unfounded. She said it’s just not the job of lawmakers to reach such a conclusion.

“If any of the allegations presented are in fact true and there’s evidence to support these claims, the Legislature most certainly is not the proper authority to pursue charges,” Rogers said.

“Any claims as serious as those presented to us should have been immediately turned in to Arizona law enforcement officials and not brought before the Legislature,” she said. “This was not the appropriate venue to discuss what could potentially be criminal activity.”

The only one to actually say something during the hearing was Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, who said, “this is not the appropriate place” for such claims.

Thursday’s hearing came less than 24 hours after Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes released various internal documents from her office showing that her Republican predecessor, Mark Brnovich, found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.