Ethics panel says Arizona lawmaker invited false testimony, lied

PHOENIX — Rep. Liz Harris violated House rules by inviting a witness to present false charges about lawmakers and others at a committee hearing and then lying about knowing what was going to be said, the House Ethics Committee says.

In a report released Tuesday, the committee found that the Chandler Republican lawmaker knew ahead of time that Jacqueline Breger, a Scottsdale insurance agent, was going to allege that numerous people, including House Speaker Ben Toma, other lawmakers, and judges were all part of schemes involving money laundering, drug trafficking, public corruption, bribery of public officials and election fraud. Breger also asserted during the hearing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints “controls’’ government agencies and has been “integral to the laundering activities.’’

Harris, who invited Breger, also did nothing during the hearing to stop the presentation, the Ethics Committee said. Toma has said Breger presented “unsubstantiated and defamatory allegations.”

Harris violated House rules against disorderly behavior and damaged “the institutional integrity of the House,” the five-member bipartisan Ethics Committee unanimously concluded.

But the panel made no recommendation on discipline. Instead, its report says all 60 House members should read the full report, look at the exhibits and draw their own conclusions.

Punishment could be as little as a censure or as much as expulsion. The latter action would require a two-thirds vote of the full chamber.

Harris expressed little concern. “God knows the truth,’’ she told Capitol Media Services Tuesday.

‘Make sure this doesn’t happen again’

Even before the Ethics Committee probe, House Democrats had asked for a motion of censure, which was rejected by the Republican majority.

“The report now clearly demonstrates that Rep. Harris has damaged the integrity of the institution that we all hold dear,’’ said House Minority Leader Andres Cano of Tucson. “House Republicans need to tell us what their plan is to make sure this doesn’t happen again.’’

There was no immediate response from Toma or House GOP leadership.

The investigation is fallout from a five-hour meeting in February of representatives and senators, requested by and organized by Harris, designed to hear presentations related to election integrity by pre-selected individuals. Breger was the last to testify.

During her testimony, the ethics panel found, Breger “unequivocally and repeatedly accused many government officials of criminal conduct.’’ That list included Toma, other legislators, local officeholders, Maricopa County Superior Court judges, prosecutors and attorneys. Breger specifically said that “in Arizona, public officials accepting bribes include members of the Legislature.’’

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Text messages cited by ethics panel

At an Ethics Committee hearing last month, Harris insisted she didn’t know what Breger was going to say.

The report said the evidence shows otherwise. Backing that up is a series of text messages.

For example, when Harris asked Breger ahead of time for a title for her presentation, Breger responded, “We are trying to think of something that won’t raise a red flag.’’

There also was testimony that Harris spent more than two hours with Breger four days before the presentation. And in the next four days, the report says, Harris had at least one phone call with Breger, two online virtual meetings and an ongoing group text with Breger and her boyfriend, attorney John Thaler, who first aired some of the allegations in court proceedings related to his divorce and child custody case.

Ethics Committee members also said Harris took steps to avoid providing the materials ahead of the February hearing as required by internal House deadlines, and that she specifically wanted to keep the information, including the criminal allegations, away from House leadership.

“The totality of the evidence shows that Rep. Harris used her elected position to provide Breger with a legislative platform as a substitute for a criminal court,’’ the Ethics Committee concluded. “As Rep. Harris stated in a text message reply to Breger about the hearing, ‘It was all how it was intended to be.’ ‘’

‘Erodes public trust’

During the Ethics Committee hearing, Harris presented a defense that included repeated references to the state Constitution and her belief that lawmakers are obliged to allow citizens to come and present information to the Legislature.

“The people have the right to speak freely, petition the government and hold their government officials accountable,’’ Harris said in her lengthy rebuttal to the allegations. “We must ensure that these rights are protected and that the people are empowered to exercise them.’’

In its report, the Ethics Committee said it was not commenting on the constitutional rights of any individual to speak freely. But the report said House rules have long required not just the chamber’s own members but the public and press to “maintain proper decorum” during House proceedings.

“What the House rules cannot tolerate is a member engaging in the conduct described (in the report), which erodes public trust in the legislative process,’’ the report says.