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Former Arizona AG sat on records refuting election fraud | State







Phoenix — The former Arizona attorney general has covered up findings by investigators who concluded claims that the 2020 election was ruined by widespread fraud are baseless, his successor announced Wednesday. According to the document.

Democratic Attorney General Chris Mays, who took office last month, said the records show the 2020 election was “conducted fairly and accurately by election officials.”

Former Republican Attorney General Mark Brunovich never released a summary of the March 2022 findings, ruling out most of the fraud allegations spread by former President Donald Trump’s allies and supporters. .Yet a month later he was released “Interim report” His research, he argued, “reveals serious vulnerabilities that must be addressed and raises questions about the 2020 election in Arizona.”

He released an April report despite backlash from his investigators, who said some of the allegations were refuted by their investigation. U.S. Senate primaries It has faced heavy criticism from Trump, who argued it wasn’t enough to accuse of election fraud.

Brnovic, whose initial bid failed, did not release his September memo, systematically refuting a series of election intrigues rooted in the right. These include allegations of dead voters, duplicate voters, pre-scored ballots from Asia, election servers, and more. It was even connected to the Internet and operated by a satellite controlled by the Italian military.

“In each case, the aforementioned parties provided no evidence to support their claims,” ​​the September memo said. and was investigated by agents and support staff and found to be inaccurate.”

September’s memo in it documents released Wednesday, describes a comprehensive investigation that has become a top priority for the Attorney General’s investigators. They have opened 430 investigations into him and referred 22 to indictments.President Joe Biden beat Arizona With just over 10,000 votes.

Mays said the fraud allegations were futile.

“With more than 10,000 hours spent diligently researching every conspiracy theory under the sun, our core mission is to protect the people of Arizona from real crime and fraud,” Mays said in a statement. has distracted me from this office.

Attempts to reach Brnovich for comment were unsuccessful.

Brnovic’s “interim report” argued that election officials were working too quickly to verify voter signatures, leading to a decline in the number of rejected ballots from 2016 to 2018, and another decline in 2020. pointed out that He also claimed Maricopa County was slow to respond to the request. for more information.

He made these allegations even after the investigators who reviewed the draft objected and published his report with few changes in response to their feedback.

Investigative staff concluded that the county registrar’s office had “followed policies/procedures related to signature verification.” No crime or fraud committed in this area during the 2020 general election was found,” investigators wrote. They also found the county “cooperative and responsive to our requests.” He said he discovered

Arizona has become the epicenter of activity by Trump supporters seeking to cast doubt on Mr. Biden’s victory. Republican leaders in the state Senate subpoenaed election records and equipment and hired a Florida firm led by Trump supporter Cyber ​​Ninjas Inc. to carry it out. unprecedented review of the election in Maricopa County.

Cyber ​​Ninja’s review found Biden got more votes than the official count, but their job was to run elections in Maricopa County, home to Metro Phoenix, which makes up the majority of Arizona’s voters. An investigation by the Attorney General’s Office found the allegations did not stand up to scrutiny.

“A comprehensive review of the CNI audit found it did not provide evidence to support widespread fraud and vote manipulation allegations,” Brnovich’s investigators wrote.

Thursday’s release Latest confirmation that happened fraud is not prevalent in the 2020 election and that Biden elected president legally. Trump continues to repeat the lie that the election was stolen from him in his third run for the White House. review and audit say it another way battleground state he fought his own administrator debunking his claims.

Maricopa County officials, whose nearly all officials overseeing the election are Republicans, say they endured death threats Verbal abuse with cheating suggestions in Cyber ​​Ninjas review and Brnovich’s “interim report.”

Clint Hickman, Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Oversight Board, said in a statement, “This is a gross misuse of the office he elected, an appalling waste of taxpayer dollars, and an unprofessional waste of money.” It is a waste of investigator time and effort.” .

Brnovich’s investigators concluded that Maricopa County officials uniformly did not follow state election procedures when completing forms to document receipt and transportation of vote-by-mail ballots. However, they said the error was procedural and that “investigators found nothing that compromised the integrity of the ballot or the final vote count.”

Investigators interviewed two Republican state representatives who publicly claimed to have known of election fraud, but said neither Rep. Mark Finkem nor Senator Sonny Borrelli repeated their allegations to investigators. I am writing. Execution. Investigators said a third Senator, Republican Wendy Rogers, refused to speak to them.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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