Liddy recalled that an RNC attorney, whom he and others identified as Benjamin Maer, told him there were “a lot of angry people out there” and the campaign “has no control over them.” rice field.
Liddy said in an interview on Friday that he considers the term threatening.
On Friday night, a Twitter account linked to Lake’s campaign posted: video Part of the call that captured Liddy cursing and yelling. Lake’s campaign did not respond to a request for full video taken from the Republican war room at the Scottsdale resort. He said he was caught off-guard by the fact that it was publicly posted on the website.
Lake campaign attorney Tim La Sota, who was present on the call, said he did not dispute Liddy’s characterization of the conversation but did not interpret Mehr’s comments as threatening.RNC spokesperson Mann released a statement calling Liddy’s account of the call “false” and attacking Maricopa County officials for being “completely incompetent.”
of A tense exchange between two Republican lawyers exposes a Republican civil war over election control. Nowhere is that feud more intense than in Maricopa County, the country’s second-largest voting district, which has been the focus of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 defeat. The race for a state attorney general that could dictate election law enforcement remains a blank slate.
Videotaped exchanges reveal how mounting distrust morphed into open hostility in the aftermath of the midterm elections. Lake’s campaign cited problems with the printers that had plagued ballots throughout Maricopa County, arguing that the results should not be certified and that county officials should be removed from office.
Lake has not conceded to Democrat Katie Hobbs, who declared victory shortly after major networks called for the election on Monday.
Anger, evident in the phone call, continues to define Lake’s public comments in the days that followed, while the legal strategy for her campaign remains unclear. , says it aims to narrow the margins, not to overturn the results.
Lake isn’t calling out protests like Trump did after the defeat, but her team has launched a meme about Hobbes that portrays Democrats as dogs and calls her “unfit” and “downright suspicious.” shared.
A video clip circulated by Lake’s campaign shows an RNC lawyer sitting in front of a computer with a cell phone in his hand, while another person on the other side is either recording the episode or not. holding mobile phone like. In the clip A lawyer for the RNC says it would help “if we can say that Tom Liddy is giving us good information.”
“Guess what?” Liddy replied, according to the video recording. If you’re not happy working with…then stop.I won’t give s—.
At one point, Liddy said, “You sound like you’re threatening me.” Mehr replied, “I’m not threatening you. I promise.”
Liddy repeated, recalling the words of the RNC lawyer. According to her video recording, Liddy said, “If I don’t get these answers soon, I won’t be able to tell crazy people that I was helpful.” —.”
“I’m just saying what I’m worried about,” Mehr replied, and Liddy said, “I don’t care.”
Liddy’s call log shows that the conversation lasted 12 minutes. He said the short video lacked significant context to explain his reaction to the email remarks. RNC spokesman Nathan Brand said the video “shows how Maricopa County attorneys responded to RNC attorneys seeking transparency. This is totally unacceptable.”
La Sota, Lake’s campaign attorney, told The Washington Post that the call was one of many conducted by the county on “various” ballot issues. Questions posed early in the conference call were the nature of unprocessed ballots and the possibility that they could not be properly checked out of the Vote Center after experiencing mechanical problems, preventing them from voting elsewhere. I was focusing on a certain number of people.
La Sota said the county attorney was in the middle of a stressful situation, but Liddy overreacted. Liddy, A lifelong Republican, he is the son of G. Gordon Liddy, the attorney who devised the failed robbery that led to the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. He served as his RNC’s deputy attorney in his 1990s.
Liddy told the Post that he reported to his superiors, county attorney Rachel Mitchell, sheriff Paul Penzone, a Democrat, and Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the county board.
Lake’s campaign has lashed out at Maricopa County for printer problems at 70 polling places. Some people waited in long lines, moved to another location to vote, or left their ballots in a safe box because of problems with the ballots being too thin to read. Had to travel downtown and tally there. The county has not yet determined the cause of the printer’s problem.
On Thursday, Lake told her followers on social media, “Arizona, we’re still in this fight.” Received a standing ovation at a luncheon hosted by the Policy Institute. That night, she addressed a crowd at the club, falsely claiming that officials “shut down the machine on Election Day,” according to a video circulating on social media.
The county has accused Republican leaders in the state of spreading misinformation about early voting and making baseless illegal allegations. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office moved Gates to an undisclosed location due to intimidation, Gates confirmed to The Post on Friday.
The county attorney’s office represents two bodies responsible for elections: the board of oversight and the county registrar. After the 2020 election, Liddy took a leading role in advising county officials as Trump and his allies attempted to delay or reverse the certification of results. Arizona’s Republican Attorney General Mark Brunovich.
Liddy told the Post that he reacted to the RNC attorney’s comments in the context of threats to county officials and others defending the legitimacy of the 2020 election. It included Rusty Bowers, Republican Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives. He has resisted a pressure campaign to undo Trump’s losses in Arizona and has faced protests outside his home as a result, including that his 42-year-old daughter was dying.January 2021, at his home.
“This has been the situation with people on the streets throughout 2020. People out on the street in front of Rusty Bowers’ house while their daughter is dying. To my clients who are officers or employees of Maricopa County. Hundreds, if not thousands, of death or imprisonment threats were sent, death threats against me and my son,” Liddy said.
Liddy said the questions posed by Lake’s campaign were routine and he worked to answer them quickly.
“What was shocking was that a bar association member threatened another lawyer,” he added.
Monday’s call comes amid growing tensions between the Republican campaign and Maricopa County.
Two days after the election, on Nov. 10, a Phoenix-based attorney representing the RNC wrote to the county elections commission to process ballots and release the results, according to emails obtained. asked that his department “keep running 24 hours a day.” by post. County leaders responded that the elections department was already “operating at peak capacity.” Election officials have previously stressed that the tally could take as long as 12 days.
Last week, Lake published a series of video testimonies on Twitter from voters who claimed they were denied the opportunity to vote. Voters said they were discouraged by encountering mechanical glitches and other barriers, but some closed their remarks to the cameras by saying they finally voted.
Lake’s campaign attorney, La Sota, also requested extensive correspondence and other documents from the county, according to a copy of the request obtained by The Washington Post. I am seeking all communication between county officials and agents prior to Election Day regarding matters relating to counting or printing ballots in the United States.
La Sota wrote that none of the voter centers it opened for early voting on Oct. 12 encountered tallying problems, which he argued “would make no logical sense.” . A county spokeswoman confirmed that the printer problem surfaced only on Election Day. But early ballots were all counted downtown, the same place where ballots with too light ink were sent for counting.
