Arizona House expels lawmaker for inviting false testimony

PHOENIX — The state House voted Wednesday to expel Chandler Republican Liz Harris after the Ethics Committee found she invited false testimony and lied.

By a 46-13 vote, the Republican-led House accepted the committee’s findings that Harris knew that someone she invited to testify at a hearing on election integrity was going to present not just false but defamatory accusations against lawmakers, judges and even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, accusing them of being involved in a criminal scheme to rig elections and other crimes.

The Ethics Committee members also concluded Harris was not truthful with them about what she knew ahead of time that Scottsdale insurance agent Jacqueline Breger was going to say at the hearing.

It takes 40 votes to oust a sitting representative.

“This comes down to the integrity, in my opinion, of this institution and us as leaders,’’ said Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria. “This is not personal.’’

“It is a sad and somber day for our institution,’’ said House Minority Leader Andres Cano, D-Tucson. But he called it “necessary.’’

“There has been real and lasting damage to the lives and the reputations of people who did not deserve it,’’ Cano said. “Most importantly, the integrity of this House has been jeopardized.’’

This is the chamber’s first expulsion since 2018 when then-Rep. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, was accused of violating a House policy against sexual harassment.

‘You need to toe the line’

Harris, a first-term lawmaker, said nothing in her defense during the vote.

Afterwards, in the House parking lot, she said “the report is a lie.’’ Harris also said the votes from Republican colleagues to oust her were political.

“You need to toe the line,’’ she said. “If you don’t toe the line, this is what happens.’’

Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, said the decision to oust her — versus some lesser punishment like censure — was unwarranted.

“Liz Harris made an error in judgment,’’ he said. “She did something she shouldn’t have done.’’

Kolodin said Harris “played shell games,’’ hiding from House leaders what Breger intended to say despite rules to the contrary.

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“But expulsion sets a bad precedent. It sets a bad precedent because we don’t want to expel (House) members for what members of the public say,’’ he told colleagues.

The grounds for expelling Harris were that her conduct damaged “the institutional integrity of the House.’’ But Kolodin said the people who sent Harris to the Capitol to “rock the boat’’ will not see the situation that way.

“They will perceive that they don’t have a true voice in this body because when they elect somebody to rock the boat and she does it, albeit in a wrong way, a way that should have been better considered, that member will be expelled,’’ Kolodin said.

He argued it makes Harris a “martyr.’’

Text messages were evidence

At the February joint House-Senate hearing on election issues, Breger made a rambling 40-minute presentation alleging criminal schemes within Arizona, including money laundering, drug trafficking and sales, public corruption, bribing of public officials and election fraud.

She claimed lawmakers including House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Peoria, and Gov. Katie Hobbs were implicated, and she charged that these activities had been overseen by the LDS Church.

“Harris knew or was aware that Ms. Breger would present these criminal allegations at the joint hearing,’’ the five-member bipartisan Ethics Committee concluded.

The report, adopted by the full House, said House rules required Harris, who was the primary organizer of the joint hearing, to present what Breger intended to say to legislative leaders. She did not do so.

While Harris did not comment during Wednesday’s vote, Rep. Joseph Chaplik, R-Scottsdale, who chairs the Ethics Committee, said she was given “due process’’ and “an opportunity to tell her side of the story’’ to the panel.

In its report, the panel rejected Harris’ contention during that hearing that she did not know what Breger was going to say. Committee members said there were text messages and meetings between Harris and Breger that undermined her claim of ignorance of the planned testimony.

The Ethics Committee probe was triggered when Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson, asked the House to censure Harris following the election hearing. That proposal was voted down by the Republican majority.

But Stahl Hamilton followed through with a formal request for an investigation by the Ethics Committee, which led to the panel’s report and to the expulsion vote.

Wednesday’s action sets in motion a procedure where the elected precinct committee members in Harris’ legislative district must meet within five days and nominate three Republicans, like Harris, to fill her seat. The final decision is up to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

Until then, Republicans may be unable to advance certain parts of their legislative agenda absent Democratic support. That’s because the vacancy leaves them with only 30 votes, while 31 are needed for final approval of any measure.