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Last week Gov. Doug Ducey ordered Arizona Department of Public Safety protection for Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and her family after she received death threats sparked by the sham audit of election ballots orchestrated by state Senate Republicans.
Hobbs isn’t the first public official to receive such threats.
On Friday, C.J. Karamargin, a spokesperson for Ducey s office, said, “We take threats of violence very seriously and they are unacceptable.”
Actually, no, the governor does not take them seriously.
And, yes, he does find them acceptable.
Otherwise, Ducey would have long ago condemned the lunatic exercise that’s been going on at the state fairgrounds and the Republicans behind it. But that would take conviction. It would take putting state and country over party. It would take guts.
Senate to issue new subpoenas for election audit
Some of the 2.1 million ballots cast during the 2020 election, are brought in for recounting at a 2020 election ballot audit ordered by the Republican lead Arizona Senate at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, during a news conference Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Phoenix. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Senate Republican leaders are setting the stage for a new legal fight with Maricopa County.
Kory Langhofer, the attorney for the Senate, said he will be issuing subpoenas today for all five Maricopa County supervisors, demanding they appear to explain why they won’t surrender certain equipment and information for review as part of the audit of the 2020 General Election returns. Langhofer also said the Senate wants to hear from Scott Jarrett, the county’s director of election day and emergency voting.
The lawsuit stemmed from a 2017 arrest during which McGough was detained by Maricopa County Sheriff s Office deputies and a U.S. Forest Service Officer near the Salt River, where he had been tubing with friends. A scuffle allegedly took place between officers and McGough, culminating in his take-down. One of the involved deputies, David Crissinger, broke his leg during the tackle. McGough was handcuffed and taken to a nearby substation. Inside a holding cell at the station, Deputy Shaun Eversole sicced a K9 on McGough for around three minutes while he was still handcuffed. Roughly a year later, McGough filed a lawsuit against Penzone, Eversole, and the other involved officers in federal court, alleging that they committed assault and torture.
Nine West Valley municipalities have signed an intergovernmental agreement to create an investigative team that looks into critical incidents.Â
Police chiefs from the cities of Avondale, Buckeye, Glendale, Goodyear, Peoria, El Mirage, Tolleson and Surprise, as well as the town of Wickenburg, make up the task force.
The West Valley Investigative Response Team will assist in the investigation, documentation, evidence gathering and related functions of a âcritical incident,â including officer-involved shootings, officer injuries and other investigations. This WVIRT will ensure involved agencies are not investigating their own critical incidents.
The bill HB 2765 requires a third-party investigation into police shootings and other incidents.Â