finchem, mark rep

===

pow wacko pending, achieved big lie 3 25 UFO conf

won primary 8 22

see COWS militia

mack const sheriff

see bundy malheur

matt shea wacko

east steps of capitol after breech [jones? bannon?]

"you communicated with leaders from the Stop the Steal organization regarding a [1/6] event on the U.S. Capitol grounds" and "you stated that you" had a letter for Pence "'asking him to consider postponing the award of electors.'"

ginni email 20x az reps

bad code html endit1

see bak 8 22

TPUSA

---

20DE13BB-5966-4F9C-BF22-387EC5F3F47E

FINCHEM LAKE ~ DEMS

an 3 25

Two Arizona lawmakers and President Donald Trump’s nominee for a top Pentagon job spoke at a conspiracy theory convention over the weekend, appearing alongside a man who claims God is telling him to sell cryptocurrency.

Arizona lawmakers Sen. Mark Finchem, R-Prescott, and Rep. Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu, each spoke on multiple panels at the Quantum Summit 2 event, a convention for a fringe conspiracy theory that claims extraterrestrials are helping shape national and global policy.

During one presentation, Finchem was joined by retired Gen. Anthony Tata, Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness at the Pentagon.

Tata had previously been nominated by Trump during his first presidency, but his past inflammatory remarks referring to President Barack Obama as a “terrorist” and a series of Islamaphobic tweets scuttled his appointment.

Tata has appeared at a Quantum Summit event before, speaking at the inaugural event in 2024; photographs of his participation were posted on the event website and in other promotional materials. The White House did not respond to a request for comment or answer questions if they were aware of Tata’s planned attendance.

In a program for the event posted to BlueSky by anonymous independent extremist researcher Arizona Right Watch, Tata was listed as speaking on a panel with Finchem and two individuals who frequently post videos with QAnon related themes. Both Biasucci and Finchem also held their own presentations separately, with Biasucci speaking about his legislation and Finchem about his work with a former Tennessee cop in which Finchem has pursued spurious fraud claims.

“We are a very small team,” Finchem said, alluding to a nonprofit he created that has spread debunked election fraud claims and whose “head researcher,” a former Tennessee cop named Shawn Taylor, was also present at the event. Finchem suggested that those in attendance should donate to help fund his nonprofit’s work.

Quantum Summit 2 was put on in Cape Canaveral, Florida, by believers in the NESARA/GESARA conspiracy theory. In its most basic form, NESARA/GESARA is a conspiracy theory that revolves around a proposed piece of economic reforms from the 1990s called the National Economic Security and Recovery Act that conspiracy theorists believe was enacted in secret by President Bill Clinton but was covered up by the U.S. Supreme Court via a gag order and suppressed by the 9/11 attacks, which were orchestrated by President George W. Bush.

GESARA refers to a supposed global version of the economic reforms that adherents similarly believe were instituted and then hidden.

In the early 2000s, the conspiracy theory gained popularity in the early internet days as Shaini Goodwin, calling herself the “Dove of Oneness,” made bold predictions about NESARA and world events with dubious claims of “insider knowledge.”

Goodwin is a “graduate” of a New-Age school whose leader often goes on homophobic and antisemitic rants and has teamed up with QAnon. It is also tied to the NXIVM cult that was investigated for sex crimes and much more.

The conspiracy theory has regained traction in recent years, as QAnon adherents have flocked to it due to its many similarities.

NESARA/GESARA has often also been called the “grandfather” of the QAnon conspiracy movement. Goodwin initially promoted it as part of a larger scam that defrauded investors of millions of dollars, with promises of the erasure of all debts and the eventual abolishment of the Internal Revenue Services.

Believers often claim that extraterrestrials have been in communication with them or leaders within the movement and are working to promote the NESARA/GESARA agenda. A promotional video for the Cape Canaveral event that Finchem and Biasiucci spoke at mentions discussions around encouraging the U.S. Space Force to work with the “Galactic Federation.” The idea of a Galactic Federation is often discussed in the context of UFO religions and New Age movements.

The event was the brainchild of a man named Mel Carmine, who believes that Trump, using the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is ushering in the NESARA/GESARA plan.

Carmine also has violent beliefs as to what the government should be doing to Trump’s perceived enemies.

“Everything you buy, everything you touch, has a tax,” Carmine said in a with Finchem and Biasucci. “People are tired of the thievery…I believe I’m speaking for the American people. I’m pissed off and I know the American people are pissed off. I know I wanna see guillotines and I’m very sure the American people want to see the guillotines and people hanging from ropes. Are we going to see these people perp walked? Are we going to see these people taken care of?”

Neither Arizona lawmaker responded to the statement, and instead spoke about legislation they’re running about taxes in Arizona.

In that same interview, Finchem claimed that Attorney General Kris Mayes had sent a “threatening” letter to lawmakers regarding cryptocurrency. A spokesperson for Mayes said they were unaware of any letter and noted they were working with Republican lawmaker Rep. Jeff Weninger, R-Chandler, on a cryptocurrency bill.

Neither Biasucci nor Finchem responded to repeated requests for comment.

In an opening video for the event, Carmine also claimed that God showed him the logo of a cryptocurrency in the sky that he is now pushing as the currency that will be backed by NESARA/GESARA. That cryptocurrency was featured prominently throughout the event and is pushed heavily on Carmine’s social media.

The event included a litany of speakers with conspiratorial ties and beliefs ranging from UFOs to a man who claimed that he was the original author of The Matrix movie, a claim that was rejected in court.

On Telegram during the conference, Carmine interviewed a person who claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which left 20 children and 6 adults dead, was faked by the government and claimed “anti-gravity tech” and the scam technology known as “med beds” would be forthcoming.

Biasiucci and Finchem are not strangers to conspiracy conventions. In 2021, both spoke at a QAnon convention full of conspiracy theories and antisemitic propaganda.

Finchem has also fundraised with QAnon adherents and had major support from the QAnon community during his failed bid for statewide office in 2022. One of those major supporters, Juan O. Savin, was also a speaker at Quantum Summit 2.

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Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com.

Arizona GOP nominee appears on show with Hitler-praising host who said Jewish people were behind 9/11

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published 09/12/24 mma

Mark Finchem, the Republican nominee for a state Senate seat in Arizona, was a guest on the September 11 show of Hitler-praising antisemite Scott McKay, with the host offering to help Finchem when he becomes a state senator.

McKay has praised Adolf Hitler for purportedly “fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today,” said that Jewish people practice “child sacrifice” and eat their hearts, and claimed that Jewish people engineered 9/11, among other antisemitic statements.

Finchem is a former Arizona state representative, failed secretary of state candidate, and an election denier who was reportedly near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He also has a history of promoting QAnon propaganda. He is now the Republican nominee for a state Senate seat in Arizona’s District 1.

Finchem appeared on the September 11 edition of McKay’s streaming program, where the two spent significant time pushing election denial.

They also talked about Finchem’s state Senate race, with the antisemitic host telling Finchem that when he’s potentially elected senator: “You need any help in any of the messaging coming out of there, you know you can come here.”

Finchem replied: “Well, I appreciate that.”

Toward the end of the interview, McKay told Finchem:

Video file

CitationFrom the September 11, 2024, edition of The Tipping Point with Scott McKay

SCOTT MCKAY (HOST): Mark, thanks for everything you've done contributing in this country. You're a great man and I just love that I get a chance to spend time with people like you who have been doing these things when it wasn't cool or in vogue. You were doing it because it's who you are and because you're a true American and sworn to defend the country, and now you're taking the biggest risks of your life doing what you're doing. So we'll follow you right into that state Senate seat. Anywhere where we can help deliver some body blows to that criminal machine, we're here for it.

MARK FINCHEM: Thank you very much, Scott. Have a great day.

MCKAY: Much love to you, brother.

The video page for Finchem’s interview with McKay also included a link to donate to his campaign.

McKay has repeatedly pushed antisemitism and pro-Hitler rhetoric on his show and elsewhere, as Media Matters previously documented:

McKay claimed that Jewish people “built Hitler. … He was created by them” because they needed a catalyst to profit from a military conflict. He also praised Hitler for supposedly attempting to spurn his Jewish creators by trying to break “free of the Rothschilds’ corrupt money-magic fiat system” and create “a banking system for the people and the free world.”
McKay said: “Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today.”
McKay claimed that 9/11 was perpetrated by “the same group of people that has done a very good job at hiding under the religion of Judaism."
McKay claimed that many Jewish people are hiding “under the cover of this religion called Judaism” so they can “murder children.”
McKay claimed that Jewish people practice “satanism, child sacrifice, bleeding them out, torturing them, consuming them, eating their heart.”
McKay claimed that Jewish people created a banking system “in exchange for the child blood sacrifices.”
McKay claimed that Jewish people were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing and the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and William McKinley.

McKay was so antisemitic that he was kicked off the far-right ReAwaken America tour, where he had appeared with Eric Trump and other allies of the former president.

Finchem’s appearance on the program of an antisemite isn’t an anomaly. Several other prominent Arizona Republicans have appeared on shows hosted by people with antisemitic histories, including U.S. Senate nominee Kari Lake and state Sens. Anthony Kern and Wendy Rogers. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has also repeatedly promoted antisemitic media figures, including Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

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Federal court hands major loss to Arizona Republican election deniers - Alternet.org

arizona Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem — who both ran in 2022 for Governor and Secretary of State, respectively — just had their case challenging the use of vote tabulation machines dismissed by a federal appeals court.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that a three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the case brought by Lake and Finchem lacked any evidence to back up claims that their constitutional rights were violated. Notably, the panel stated in an 11-page opinion that both Lake and Finchem "conceded that their arguments were limited to potential future hacking, and not based on any past harm."

"[E]ven assuming Plaintiffs could continue to claim standing as prospective voters in future elections, they had not alleged a particularized injury and therefore failed to establish the kind of injury Article III requires," the ruling read. "None of Plaintiffs’ allegations supported a plausible inference that their individual votes in future elections will be adversely affected by the use of electronic tabulation, particularly given the robust safeguards in Arizona law, the use of paper ballots and the post-tabulation retention of those ballots."

This is not the first loss both Lake and Finchem have had in the courts. In March, Finchem, who lost the 2022 race for Secretary of State by more than 120,000 votes, was sanctioned by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian for bringing a "groundless" case before her court.

"None of Contestant Finchem’s allegations, even if true, would have changed the vote count enough to overcome the 120,000 votes he needed to affect the result of this election," Julian wrote. "The Court finds that this lawsuit was groundless and not brought in good faith."

Lake, for her part, was sanctioned in May for making "false factual statements" before the court regarding her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the gubernatorial race. Her legal team was ordered to pay $2,000 for falsely stating that 35,000 ballots in Maricopa County — which houses approximately 60% of Arizona's registered voters — were improperly added to the total count.

Both Lake and Finchem continue to stand by their false claims that former President Donald Trump was the winner of the 2020 presidential election. As a state lawmaker, Finchem sponsored several resolutions attempting to decertify Biden's electoral college victory in Arizona. Lake, who is currently running for the US Senate seat currently occupied by Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), still has yet to officially concede that she lost in 2022.

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Anthony Kern (former Arizona state representative)}:

4:53: How long is the line

4:54: 2 mile line right now.

4:54: Wow

5:14: Thanks Ali! God with you today!

Caroline Wren

4:55: I’m being told that the line is already 2 miles long

4:59: It is!!!!

5:00: Just cut the line until you get to expedited entry

5:00: All your names are on the list

5:00: I’m going to arrive at 7 AM. In mygolf carts.Can I text you then?

“God’s Army” (group chat that includes Jericho March leader Arina Grossu)

5:23: I have two passes for y’all

Thomas Van Flein

5:36: Non speaking members of Congress need to be there by 8:30. We don’t have a shuttle. Iwill make sure they have security escorts walking back to the capitol when it’s time for session

5:37: We want 30 Members minimum

5:38: Ok.

5:48: Can we send an email to the entirehouse freedom caucusif they all need to be at the ellipse. POTUS wants force!

Jeremy Oliver (owner, Onslaught Media Group; with Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano on Jan. 6)

6:07: What time do you recommend I have Senator Mastriano at ellipse?

6:25: Now is good

6:25: Or by 8

Jacob Wohl

7:24: Best place to link up with you for 1 PM?

7:44: Capitol south side in between senate side and scotus

Roger Stone (Alexander’s mentor and longtime GOP dirty trickster)

:{10:02: As I expected no speaking spot, no VIP entrance for any of my people –

10:09: I can get in the VIP for your people but yeah we got fucked

10:26: I understand the funder of today’s event is not happy – I never thought it was real.

10:42: Time to sue }:

NOTE: Alexander testified to the Jan 6. Committee that he was directed to leave the Ellipse early with Alex Jones — while Trump was still speaking — to begin leading the overflow crowd towards the Capitol

Mike Coudrey

12:12 p.m.: Can y’all get out earlier

12:21: We did

12:22: Have half of the speakers with me

12:22: We lost most of the oathkeepers by the way

12:22: We have 3 down from 24

12:22: SMH

12:22: We will have Alex’s security secure the stage until we get there you know

Caroline Wren

12:19: Is POTUS walking? Can you give me an update every five minutes

12:29: He is not

12:29: How’s it looking

Mark Finchem (Arizona state representative and Oath Keeper )

12:19: you still have me speaking at the Capitol?

12:20: yes

12:41: I got swept up in the crowd I’m at 15th and Constitution I presume you want me to get as close to the front as I can and I’ll spot you, you do know the cowboy hat already.

12:42: I’m on one of thegolf carts headed your way...

===

boing 12 22

In a recent December 19, 2022 interview on KJAZZ's *The Show*, recently elected Secretary of State in Arizona, Adrian Fontes, who beat out Trump-backed election denier, Oathkeeper, and January 6^{th insurrectionist}, Mark Fincham, defended Arizona's election system. Fontes praised his Republican counterparts who have also worked to keep Arizona's system one of the most accessible in the country – despite the attempts of some conservative lawmakers to the contrary, what Fontes names as the MAGA-Fascists.

As Maricopa County recorder from 2017-2021, Fontes oversaw the election process in the state's largest county by population, including the metro Phoenix area. Despite ongoing claims of election irregularities and fraud by MAGA-fascists, Fontes is steadfast and confident that Arizona's system is a model for other states.

Fontes has been in the national spotlight, including a Time magazine cover profile. In his discussion of democracy, he emphasizes county-level officials being vital to maintaining election integrity, reactionary politicians, Oathkeepers, anti-semitism, and other election issues; one phrase that stood out to me from the interview was "sore-loserism and MAGA-fascism."

My ears were pricked by this phrase – MAGA-Fascists. The use of the F-word by conservatives like Bill Kristol, and even liberals like current US President Joe Biden, to describe the mainstreaming of more militant positions once associated with the alt-right has become more commonplace.

You can check out the full interview from minute 16:08 to minute 27:15. Click on the link for December 19, 2022.

===

ALL BEATEN?

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/how-the-gops-far-right-candidates-faired/

11 22 rww

on Election Day, Democrats braced for a red wave that could put the GOP’s most extreme candidates into office. But nearly a week later, that wave looks more like a trickle. Americans generally rejected the party’s far-right candidates, though many of these far-right candidates have yet to accept the will of the people.

In Michigan, Republican nominee for secretary of state Kristina Karamo soundly lostto current Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Just days before the election, Karamo launched a lawsuit to try to throw out tens of thousands of votes from Detroit voters who voted by mail-in ballots, claiming that they were fraudulent. When that lawsuit to disenfranchise voters in the majority-Black, majority-Democratic city failed ahead of the election, Karamo turned her attention to Ann Arbor, where the student-heavy population waited hours in line to vote.

In a press release in the wee hours last Wednesday, Karamo accused the Ann Arbor City Clerk of breaking several election laws, claiming that the clerk allowed voters to enter the line after 8 p.m. deadline, and criticized the Ann Arbor police for failing to “investigate election crimes.” In a tweet, she took those accusations a step further, accusing the clerk of “engaging in mass election Crimes. Illegally registering people after 8pm. Registering non-Michigan citizens to vote.”

“We are not election deniers or threats to democracy,” Karamo claimed in her press release. “This is a real threat to our society as it demoralizes citizens to believe that voting is pointless as their legal ballot will be nullified by fraud.”

Karamo issued another press release Thursday in which she doubled down on her accusations of fraud and called for her supporters to “Standby,” promising, “there’s much more to come.”

As we reported ahead of Election Day, Karamo made election denialism a key component of her campaign and was expected to allege fraud should she lose. The Wayne County judge who dismissed her lawsuit targeting Detroit voters said Karamo provided “no evidence” of her allegations.

Other clear losses for the GOP’s extreme candidates were seen in Maryland, where Michael Peroutka, the Confederacy-supporting, Dixie-singing Christian nationalist, soundly lost his bid for attorney general to Democrat Anthony G. Brown. Ahead of Election Day, a top aide to Peroutka had encouraged voters to get in line to vote late in the day—a move denounced by the Maryland Democratic Party as “plotting to create chaos and laying the groundwork to challenge the upcoming election.” It didn’t matter, as Peroutka’s loss was called by the Associated Press as early as 11 p.m. on Election Day.

Peroutka didn’t concede.In a press release, Peroutka claimed that “many odd and suspicious incidents were reported by poll watchers.” He concluded with this: “I plan to investigate these strange occurrences and I do not plan to concede the race.”

Doug Mastriano, the election-denying, Christian nationalism-promoting Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, lost by more than 14 percentage points to Democrat Josh Shapiro. He, too, refused to concede after the Associated Press called the race in favor of Shapiro, saying that he still “had faith.” But by Sunday, that faith was gone, and he finally acknowledged, “there is no right course but to concede,” all while still calling for “election reform.”

Next door, in Ohio, a Trump-endorsed candidate had a win. Trump sycophant J.D. Vance beat out Democrat Tim Ryan for that state’s Senate seat. Vance has spread the racist great replacement theory and urged Trump to rule with an iron fist should he return to the presidency.

Speaking to supporters in Youngstown, Ryan conceded the race, calling it a “privilege … because the way this country operates is that when you lose an election, you concede.” That appeared to be a jab at those Republican candidates who have signaled their refusal to concede and instead baselessly suggested electoral fraud was afoot.

Nowhere was that signal clearer than in Arizona, where GOP nominees alleged that a printer error in Maricopa County was part of Democrats’ efforts to delay GOP wins or even take them away.

On election night, GOP nominee for governor Kari Lake lashed out at “incompetent” election workers, attacked the “fake media,” and asked her supporters to not let “cheaters and crooks” sow doubt about her supposedly forthcoming win. Throughout the week, Lake continued attacking the media and election officials, with pundits and activists like Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk echoing her claims.

As of Monday afternoon, Lake continues to trail Democrat Katie Hobbs by 1 percentage point, with 93 percent of the vote counted. Ahead of the election, Lake had suggested the only way Hobbs could win would be by stealing the election.

Other election-denying Republican candidates trailing their Democratic opponents joined in alleging fraud. Blake Masters, who has perpetuated a version of the racist replacement theory, found himself behind Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly by nearly 6 percentage points when the AP called the race in favor of Kelly Saturday night.

Masters had spent Election Day suggesting that the printer error in Maricopa County could’ve been malicious. He tweeted on Election Day, “Hard to know if we’re seeing incompetence or something worse. All we know right now is that the Democrats are hoping you will get discouraged and go home.”

Masters declined to concede on Saturday, saying that he wanted “every legal vote” to be counted first.

Abe Hamadeh, an Arizona Republican running for attorney generalwho has denied the 2020 election results, trails Democrat Kris Mayes by less than a percentage point with 93 percent of the vote counted as of Monday afternoon.

Speaking to supporters on election night, he said that “incompetent” election officials threatened American democracy. He took that message further over the weekend.

“REMEMBER: 72%+ of the votes on Election Day in person were Republican. When you have 30% of the tabulating machines failing, causing people to leave the lines and give up. This is voter suppression targeting a political party,” Hamadeh said in a post on Twitter Saturday.

Hamadeh also shared an Uncover DC story authored by Tracy Beanz, a QAnon conspiracy theorist influencer and self-declared investigative journalist, to try to bolster his allegations. Beanz claimed that an election judge said that the printer error in Maricopa County was no error. “In my opinion, the machines were programmed to do this, and it was all planned,” Beanz quoted the election judge as saying. This story is gaining steam on far-right platforms and outlets, including The Gateway Pundit.

Mark Finchem, the self-declared member of the far-right extremist Oath Keepers, also fell short of expectations in his bid to become secretary of state in Arizona. Finchem was deeply involved in the so-called “Stop the Steal” campaign, a disinformation campaign aimed at overturning the 2020 presidential election and was credited with bringing the campaign to Arizona. He lost to Democrat Adrian Fontes, a former Maricopa County election official, by more than 5 percentage points. Finchem refused to concede.

“It is completely ridiculous that the #FakeNews is calling the elections in Arizona when there are 390k (many election day) ballots outstanding. RIDICULOUS!” Finchem tweeted after the AP called the race Saturday.

On Twitter, Finchem predictably alleged fraud. He shared stories from the Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft that claimed it was impossible for Maricopa County to vote Democrat; he accused Democrats of “ballot harvesting” and Fontes of “laundering money” from billionaire philanthropist George Soros; and he peddled a money laundering conspiracy theory that implicated Ukraine.

In Nevada, Jim Marchant, the QAnon-adhering election-denying secretary of state candidate, lost to Democrat Francisco Aguilar in the race to become in charge of that state’s elections by about 3 percentage points. When Marchant, who put together a coalition of likeminded “America First” secretary of state candidates, lost Saturday, it marked a string of losses for his coalition. Only one survived in Indiana. Marchant, who claimed his failed 2020 congressional bid was stymied by fraud, has yet to concede.

Among the upsets for far-right candidates is Joe Kent, who received support from white nationalists and has blamed the attack on the U.S. Capitol on “deep state provocateurs.” Kent lost to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in Washington state in a close race called by the AP Saturday.

In the primaries, Kent had beat out incumbent Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republicans who had voted for Trump’s second impeachment. But moderate Republicans who were alarmed by Kent’s extremism threw their support behind Gluesenkamp Perez ahead of Election Day. On Saturday, Kent refused to concede and told his supporters to correct their mail-in ballots.

“What the media says is irrelevant, its another narrative designed to stop voters from ballot curing & to force me to concede – not gonna happen,” Kent wrote on Twitter Saturday. “We’re on the streets ballot curing. The fight goes on while the talking heads talk.”

In response to Kent’s loss, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, tweeted, “White supremacy just doesnt win races like it did in 1921.”

Another shock occurred in Colorado’s 3rd District. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the gun-toting, QAnon-believing Christian nationalist of Colorado, appeared to be a shoo-in. But by Wednesday morning, she was trailing her Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch. On Monday, with 99 percent of the vote counted, Boebert gained the lead but by less than 1,000 votes. The race has yet to be decided and could well head to a recount should either candidate win by less than 0.5 percent.

Election deniers did get a win in Wisconsin. Ron Johnson narrowly retained his Senate seat after a group of right-wing billionaires funded a series of racially charged ads attacking Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Johnson had supported Trump’s efforts to remain in power after the former president lost the 2020 election.

In other notable news, throughout the country, voters voted to enshrine abortion rights into their state constitutions, and in Kentucky, voters rejected a measure that would have prevented that right from being enshrined in that state’s constitution.

As of Monday, Democrats retain control of the Senate. The House still remains undecided, with 17 races to be called. And though it appears likely Republicans will gain control of the House, it will be a smaller majority than Minority Speaker Kevin McCarthy wanted.

Trump’s candidates fared poorly at the polls; it turns out the biggest Trump sycophants made for candidates of questionable quality, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested in August. Notably, Trump-endorsed candidates in Arizona—where the so-called Stop the Steal campaign of 2020 found solid footing and where right-wing organizations like Turning Point USA poured their resources—underperformed. If Trump Republicans can’t claim that state, what does that say about Americans’ appetite for Trumpian politics?

Of course, far-right candidates are suggesting that fraud has played a part in their poor performance at the polls and are refusing to concede. Such claims of fraud were expected, but unlike 2020, these baseless allegations don’t appear to be catching steam nationwide.

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/lara-logan/gop-secretary-state-nominees-will-appear-event-lara-logan-who-pushes-antisemitic

mma 10 22

no lnx vid

GOP secretary of state nominees will appear at event with Lara Logan, who pushes antisemitic conspiracy theories

WRITTEN BY ERIC HANANOKI

PUBLISHED 10/14/22

Republican secretary of state nominees from Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, and Nevada are scheduled to attend an “election integrity forum” moderated by former CBS News correspondent and Fox Nation host Lara Logan this weekend. Those candidates are associating with a far-right conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish people supposedly trying to manipulate American events, from the Civil War to the assassination of presidents.

New Mexico secretary of state candidate Audrey Trujillo recently announced that her campaign would host a “New Mexico Election Integrity Forum” on October 15 featuring Logan. The event will feature election-denying secretary of state candidates who have a history of promoting toxic rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including in the media: Rayla Campbell (Massachusetts); Mark Finchem (Arizona); Kristina Karamo (Michigan); Jim Marchant (Nevada); and Trujillo.

Campbell is a QAnon supporter. Finchem posted QAnon propaganda on the white nationalist haven Gab. Karamo hosted an anti-LGBTQ podcast and claimed Beyoncé, Cardi B, and other musicians are tools of Satan. Marchant has forwarded bizarre conspiracy theories about a global “cabal” stealing elections. And Trujillo has claimed that Democrats and the deep state “create” school shootings so that they can “make people fearful” and “take away our guns.”

Other than Campbell, all of those candidates are part of Marchant’s America First Secretary of State Coalition, which falsely claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and works with QAnon influencers. They and Logan are also connected to QAnon influencer Juan O. Savin, who has pushed conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting.

The New Mexico event is the latest election-denying event for Logan, who has traveled across the country moderating such events in places including Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas.

Logan has increasingly associated with the QAnon community. She has also pushed numerous far-right conspiracy theories this year. Among them:

She claimed that Darwinism is a plot from “the Rothschilds.” Antisemites have long accused the Rothschilds of masterminding world events and tragedies.

She shared a piece claiming that Jewish people are behind “a one world government" and “central banking and big corporate money" and are the “divider and conqueror” and “the aggressor, yet always the victim." The piece also claimed the Rothschilds engineered the U.S. Civil War and the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, and that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin purged "the Rothschild money changers.”

She claimed that January 6 was a “manufactured event. We know it was orchestrated just like Charlottesville was orchestrated.”

She said that the United Nations is “infiltrating 100 million people into the United States as the basis for forming a regional government instead of a national government.”

Logan has continued pushing fringe claims in recent weeks.

During a September 19 video to her Locals.com channel, Logan said people came to the United States in 1776 because they were purportedly “escaping the reach of the Rothschilds and, you know, the central bankers of today.” She then proceeded to claim that the Illuminati -- a secret society that is frequently the focus of global conspiracy theories -- “were able to infiltrate” the country through seminaries and then suggested that “the same model” has been used to control government, schools, corporations, and the media.

Video

CitationFrom a September 19, 2022, video by Lara Logan

OFF-CAMERA ASSISTANT: From Isaiah586: “Hello, Laura. How do you come to understand this is a spiritual battlewhen so many pastors don't even get it? The church at large is asleep. God bless you.”

LARA LOGAN: Well, that's a very interesting question, because the church — I don’t believe the church at large is asleep. I think the church is complicit. And I'll tell you why. It's rooted in history. If you go back to the founding of this country back in 1776. Right? And you look at how this country was founded. You had people who were escaping the reach of the Rothschilds and, you know, the central bankers of today, those old families. You had them break free of their clutches and head for the colonies, right? Head into uncharted waters.And the Illumens at the time, which are the hierarchy of the Illuminati, they allowed that to happen. They had people watching this experiment to make sure that if it indeed did succeed, that they would have the ability to influence it and control it. But they didn't really have great expectations.

…

The colonies, the people rise up and they say, we're not going to put up with this. We're not going to have it. And that's when the Illumens look at this and they say, well, wait a minute, now. This pesky problem is growing bigger and stronger. You know, go ahead and take care of it. And that's what they expected to happen. What they didn't expect to happen was that the colonies together would rise up and defeat their colonial masters, the British, and that they would march forward to freedom and establish the United States in 1776. And so everything that we're seeing today stems from that moment in history. Because what the Illumen then realized they had to do was to infiltrate the churches because this was the backbone of the rebellion. And what happened historically is that they struggled to infiltrate with the church leaders and the pastors and so on. So where did they turn their attention? They turned it to the seminaries, and that's where they were able to infiltrate, to infiltrate the houses of learning as opposed to the houses of worship.

…

And so what you talk about as the church being asleep is really a very well-funded, orchestrated takeover of the church and infiltration of the church into decay from within, which is pretty much the same model that you can see across the board. It happened in education in this country. It's happened in government. It's happened in our government institutions, from the executive branch to the Department of Justice, to the colleges, to the schools, to the teachers unions and so on and so on. And now, of course, the corporations, the PR firms, the publishing firms, the media, you can see these same patterns replicated over and over. Because why?Because one side has to come in darkness and in deception,hide their true intent, mask who they really are, infiltrate what others have built, and take it over from within. Because they don't create. They copy. They counterfeit. They destroy from within. But they don't create.

Logan made similar remarks during a September 15 appearance on the QAnon program The Mel K Show. She said that the Pilgrims were running away from the Rothschilds and that the Illuminati were fighting with the British against the colonists. She later added: “It's absolutely no different today. We're fighting exactly the same ideology and, in some cases, you know, with people like the Rothschilds, the same people even.”

===

rww -->

the Fourth Estate reports:

Up until this year, Mark Finchem, the conspiracy theorist, stop the steal, election denying Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State automatically received his ballot via the mail since he was a Libertarian in 2008.

Despite that, Finchem has been a strong advocate of ending no-excuse mail-in voting for all Arizonans which has been in place for decades and used by at least 80% of the electorate. Finchem during his debate against Democratic challenger Adrian Fontes, the former Maricopa County recorder, last month claimed he always votes at the polls. This is a lie.

“I don’t care for mail-in voting. That’s why I go to the polls,” Finchem said. Finchem voted early and by mail in every single election since the 2004 general except for the 2007 City of Tucson general election. That’s 28 of 30 total elections (including this year’s).

Read the full article.

https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/how-steve-bannon-made-election-denier-mark-finchem-maga-hero-and-launched-his-campaign

on the June 13 episode of the War Room podcast, host Steven Bannon railed against the January 6 committee for not inviting one of his favorite election deniers to testify at its public hearings. “They want to see the receipts?” Bannon ranted. “They don’t have Finchem. Let’s hear from the guys that have the receipts.”

Bannon was referring to Mark Finchem, Arizona state representative, candidate for secretary of state, and arguably the standard bearer of the 2020 election denialist movement. Finchem’s role in Bannon’s universe is difficult to overstate. As Bannon’s remark that day illustrated, Finchem serves as one of a handful of characters who — in this epistemologically closed feedback loop — has the goods that prove Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.

Finchem, of course, does not have the goods. But in Bannon, Finchem has found a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship wherein each person’s fantastical claims have an eager recipient. He has been on at least 57 episodes of Bannon’s podcast since late 2020, during which the two have tossed baseless conspiracy theories back and forth, much to the delight of Bannon’s devoted audience. Finchem’s history in law enforcement (he retired with a “poor rating”) and modest role in Arizona’s state government gave his early War Room appearances the patina of legitimacy; to the show’s listeners, he was the rare whistleblower ready to risk it all to uncover the truth. Bannon rarely — if ever — mentions Finchem’s membership in the extremist militia the Oath Keepers, though that would likely just underscore his conservatives bona fides for the War Room audience.

Finchem now stands a good chance of becoming Arizona’s top election official, tasked with overseeing the voting operations of a swing state whose congressional delegation and electoral votes could have profound national consequences. Bannon has been his champion every step of the way, providing a crucial platform that helped transform Finchem from local oddball to MAGA hero with a national fanbase.

His ubiquitous presence in Bannon’s orbit has provided him not only with a massive audience, but also with access to the MAGA donor class. Finchem’s campaign has raised more than $1.2 million through early October, including $5,000 from former President Donald Trump’s Save America PAC and $9,300 from Wendy’s franchise kingpin Lewis Topper. Brian Kennedy, another election denier and *War Room* favorite, donated $5,000 to Finchem as well.

Finchem’s fundraising has far outpaced his Democratic challenger, despite — or because of — his extremist positions, which are manifold.They also align almost completely with Bannon's stated beliefs. Finchem has repeatedly called for a decertification of Arizona’s 2020 election results, including in a debate last month, despite zero evidence of widespread voter fraud. Last month, he said it was “fantasy” that Biden could win legitimately in Arizona, telegraphing his belief that a Democratic win is, by definition, evidence of fraud. He has embraced QAnon, just as Bannon has provided a platform for the conspiracy theory. During a June fundraiser, he vowed that he wouldn’t concede if he loses. “Ain't gonna be no concession speech coming from this guy,” Finchem said. He could've been reading from a transcript of Bannon's election-day show in 2020, when Bannon advised Trump to declare victory before all the votes were counted.

Finchem floundered early in his career; in 2013 he pushed a conspiracy theory that then-President Barack Obama was planning to establish a “totalitarian dictatorship.” Following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, Finchem said the event was likely a “deep state PSYOP” — that is, a false flag. But with Stop the Steal, and Steve Bannon, Finchem’s conspiracy-mongering found a home.

“You're becoming a star”

Finchem was a little known local politician before becoming one of the most prominent election deniers in the country. His meteoric rise occurred nearly simultaneously with his first appearance on War Room, on December 4, as he went from 3,000 Twitter followers in late November 2020 to more than 33,000 by December 8.

From the outset, Bannon and Finchem were singing from the same sheet music. On the December 15 show — Finchem’s fifth appearance — Bannon introduced him as “the driving force” making sure only “legal votes” were counted in Arizona. He contrasted Finchem with the “fantasists” who “all want to be James Bond.” The level-headed Finchem, on the other hand, was working to make sure Dominion voting machines were “seized” for a full forensic audit.

Bannon continued the segment by calling Finchem “a perfect example of a deplorable,” which the MAGA crowd has reappropriated as a term of endearment. “You’re an American patriot and an American hero,” Bannon told Finchem, later adding, “You’re becoming a star."

[vid]

finchem appeared on the show several more times in the following weeks, including on January 6 and 7 to discuss Trump’s attempted fascist coup. By then, he had amassed over 55,000 Twitter followers and was well on his way to conservative stardom. He’d also developed a keen ear for taking Bannon’s leading questions and running with them.

As the fascist mob was beginning to retreat from the Capitol, Bannon and Finchem fantasized about a looming constitutional crisis. “Are we going to be in a situation that becomes evident to everybody that the electors that were awarded to Biden were illegally elected — er, put forward, by the governor?” Bannon speculated. “And that there’s a swath of overwhelming evidence that Trump actually won Arizona?”

“What situation are we going to be in then to the people in Arizona?” he continued.

“I’ve said this over and over, and I’m not going to stop saying it,” Finchem said, not missing a beat. “This ain’t over." [vid]

"How are we gonna get your folks to show up?”

After his initial burst of appearances, Finchem became a mainstay in the War Room bullpen of regular guests.Over the course of 2021, Finchem would regularly push election conspiracy theories out to the War Room audience, sometimes following Bannon’s lead and sometimes introducing the absurd ideas himself. His appearances often take on a millenarian quality; there is always some impending, dramatic denouement — a report, or audit, or hearing — that will change everything and undo the historic wrong of the 2020 election. When that moment fails to arrive, the two simply move forward with their faith unshaken.

In February, Finchem cited a report from Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft — a conspiracy theory peddler who has repeatedly been voted “dumbest man on the Internet” — to argue that Maricopa County’s own audit of the 2020 election was “fake.” In fact, both the county’s election and audit were reliable and sound.

In July, Finchem appeared on War Room to push the debunked theory that Dominion voting machines were connected to the internet and therefore their vote counts were unreliable. Finchem argued that a recent Arizona senate hearing had found that Dominion’s “anti-virus software [was] not updated since August, 2019.” He then added, “If you're not going to be on the Internet, why would you need to have an antivirus update on a regular basis” — the implication being that the supposed presence of the software was proof the machines had been connected to the internet.

This idea would’ve been familiar to War Room listeners, as Michigan election denialist Patrick Colbeck had been pushing it to Bannon and anybody else who would listen to him since Trump’s loss in 2020. There was no truth to it when Colbeck pushed it, and there was no truth to it when Finchem pushed it.

By that point, Finchem was already running for secretary of state — he’d announced his candidacy in March of 2021 — and keeping the War Room audience on the line would be key to juicing turnout the following November. [vid]

just a few days later, Finchem again appeared on War Room, and again cited a conspiracy theory put forward by Hoft’s Gateway Pundit site. This theory became known as “SharpieGate,” and traveled widely in right-wing activist and media circles. It was completely and totally false.

“Apparently one of the election workers high up in the food chain, Kelly Dixon, ordered her staff to use ballpoint pens for early voting from 10/23 to 11/2 then they suddenly switched positions and they said we need — emphasis added — to use markers on Election Day,” Finchem said. “We've now seen with the evidence collection — paper that does not have the bleed proof coating on it that was just used for the ballot on demand thing."

“What that does is that actually forces post-ballot casting adjudication, which is an area that is fraught with potential for mis-assigning ballots because they have to interpret what the voter meant,” Finchem continued, incorrectly.

[vid]

finchem continued to appear on War Room throughout the year and into 2022, as Bannon gave him crucial boosts in the run-up to Arizona’s primaryon August 2. Bannon interviewed Finchem at least once in June, twice in July, and once on August 1, in a final push before the primary the following day. In each of those segments, Bannon was effusive in his praise of Finchem, offering him not only a platform for his ideas but also opportunities to drive traffic to his website for fundraising and organizing purposes.

“You got their heads blowing up, Finchem,” Bannon told him in June.

The following month, Finchem appealed to Bannon’s audience for help in the final push of his primary campaign. “We can always use another contribution,” Finchem said. Moments later, he gushed to Bannon: “God bless you and this platform.”

The day before the primary, Bannon had Finchem on again. “This is all about who shows up. How are we gonna get your folks to show up?” Bannon asked. “Where do they go, how do people volunteer, what do they have to do in the next 24 hours?”

Then, the day after the primary, when Finchem had clinched the nomination, Bannon again invited him on for a victory lap — and to do more fundraising for the impending general election. “We’re gonna have to raise about $2 million, brother,” Finchem said, as Bannon enthusiastically gestured at him to underline the point. “If people would click on the donate button — we’ve spent every single penny on this primary, so we are now back to ground zero.”

Bannon’s roadmap forward

In Finchem, Bannon has an uncompromising zealot who knows in his gut — as Bannon does — that Democrats can’t win elections. “If they can’t cheat they can’t win,” Bannon has said while interviewing Finchem. And in Bannon, Finchem has a household name in his corner, singing his praises month after month, incentivizing the Arizona politician to hold the extremist line.

Arizona is arguably the leading edge of the MAGA movement, as Finchem is joined on the ticket by fellow election deniers in Kari Lake, who is running for governor, Blake Masters, running for senator, and Abe Hamadeh, running for attorney general. As of publication, Finchem is slightly leading his opponent, according to a recent CNN poll, and all of the other races are close.

Mainstream reporters often overstate Bannon’s supposed strategic prowess. He endorses extreme, politically weak candidates — Roy Moore comes to mind — who adhere to his uncompromising approach to electoral politics. But if Finchem wins control of Arizona’s elections, it will be in no small part due to Bannon’s mentorship. There would be little difference between Finchem’s approach to election administration in Arizona and the way Bannon himself would run elections in one of the country’s most critical swing states.

Bannon’s show also offers conspiracy theorists like Finchem an opportunity to hone their media skills and talking points prior to being subject to mainstream scrutiny, like working the regional boxing circuit before walking into the ring at the MGM Grand. Finchem put these skills to good use last week, taking advantage of a weak interview from CBS’s Ed O’Keefe to spread his bogus ideas and lies on a national platform with zero pushback.

Two days later, Bannon celebrated the interview. One of his guests on the show that day was Mark Finchem.

===

mma 10 22

https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/qanon-influencer-ties-nevada-secretary-state-candidate-suggests-las-vegas

QAnon influencer “Juan O. Savin” — who is connected to Nevada Republican secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant — falsely suggested in an online interview that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed at least 58 people was “manufactured” and that the victims’ deaths did not happen.

While at a QAnon conference in Las Vegas in 2021, Marchant revealed that Savin, whose real name is Wayne Willott, played a role in recruiting him to run for secretary of state. The two also helped form what is now known as the America First Secretary of State Coalition— a group that Marchant leads with the aim of electing Republican candidates who have made false claims of widespread voter fraud to positions that influence election administration. It includes other GOP candidates, such as Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, Michigan secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo, and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. Other candidates who had been tied to the coalition have since confirmed Savin’s involvement, and Savin has openly discussed in online interviews his involvement with the coalition and its members, such as claiming to have consulted with Karamo.

In an interview posted online on September 28, a fellow QAnon figure claimed that there would be “an illusion of a nuclear attack” with “little toys” like “CGI and all the kind of stuff they did on 9/11.” In response, Savin said that “some of the deaths are real, some of it is manufactured.” He then pointed to the Las Vegas shooting, suggesting it did not “happen the way that we were told it happened.” He then falsely claimed that “there was no spike in emergency room admissions after the Las Vegas shooting.”

Savin’s implication that the Las Vegas shooting’s death count was faked comes as he has repeatedly pushed 9/11**Trutherism**and threatened “civil war” if people “move past” false claims of voter fraud in 2020

[CitationFrom a video uploaded toRumble on September 28, 2022

mICHAEL JACO (HOST): Looks like they want to start some kind of nuclear conflict. Whether it’s going to be real, which I don’t think it will be, or whether it will be some kind of — like, we’re — like you guys are expert at, some kind of illusion, an illusion of a nuclear attack, where they show, you know, through, you know, their mainstream media forces, you know, some kind of attack. Like they’ve already started, you know, saying, “New York, you need to prepare for a nuclear event.” So they could — they could fake one. I totally believe they might fake one, just like they did 9/11, you know, CGI and all the kind of stuff they did on 9/11, you know. You know, directed energy weapons, all kind of crazy stuff that at that time, most of us didn’t realize we had that kind of technology. So, you know, they have little toys, little things they can, they can use. And I think they might use something like it. You can see [they are] talking about it. So what do you think, Juan?

JUAN O. SAVIN: Well, you know, the problem is, if, you know, some of the deaths are real, some of it is manufactured. Did Las Vegas happen the way that we were told it happened? We look at the emergency room admissions and there was no spike in emergency room admissions after the Las Vegas shooting. We look at the buildings collapsed on 9/11. Well, they definitely collapsed — two airplanes, three buildings, a 50-story building, one of only three buildings in the history of the world, steel frame buildings, to collapse like this. It couldn’t have happened the way that it was said that it did. So is there going to be real deaths?

===

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/11/politics/fact-check-republican-secretary-of-state-nominees-2020-election

many lnx

At least 11 Republican nominees for state elections chief have disputed the legitimacy of the 2020 election

By Daniel Dale, CNN

Updated , Fri August 19, 2022

Washington (CNN)In at least 11 states, the Republican nominee for the job of overseeing future elections is someone who has questioned, rejected or tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Secretaries of state will play a critical role in managing and certifying the presidential election in 2024. The distinct possibility that some of these secretaries will be people with a history of election denial is a major challenge for American democracy -- especially because former President Donald Trump, who is widely expected to run again in 2024, continues to pressure state officials to discard the will of voters.

More than half of GOP governor nominees have questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election

More than half of GOP governor nominees have questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election

The Republican nominees for secretary of state in the November 2022 midterm elections include three swing-state candidates who have made efforts to overturn 2020 results in their states: Mark Finchem o

Arizona, Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Jim Marchant of Nevada.

The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Alabama, Wes Allen, expressed support for a 2020 lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court to toss out Joe Biden's victory. The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Indiana, Diego Morales, has called the 2020 election a "scam," the vote "tainted" and the outcome "questionable." The Republican nominee in Republican-dominated Wyoming, Chuck Gray, has said that Biden's victory was "illegitimate" and that he "absolutely" thinks Trump was the real winner.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but regularly competitive Minnesota, Kim Crockett, has described the 2020 election in her state as "lawless." The Republican nominee in the Democratic-dominated Connecticut, Dominic Rapini, is the former chair of a group that has made baseless complaints of 2020 fraud.

The Republican nominee in Democratic-leaning but sometimes competitive New Mexico, Audrey Trujillo, has called the 2020 election stolen. So have the Republican candidates in Massachusetts and Vermont, both obscure figures who face long odds of winning their liberal states in November.

There are some significant differences in the intensity with which these 11 nominees have committed to election rejection. For example, Morales acknowledged in June that Biden "legitimately occupies" the presidency, while Finchem, a serial promoter of wild conspiracy theories about the election, has persisted this year in his impossible quest to reverse Biden's victory in Arizona.

Twenty-seven states are holding secretary of state elections in 2022. CNN will update this list if we find information showing that the 2020 results have been disputed by additional Republican nominees. (The little-known South Dakota candidate who won the Republican nomination at a June convention, Monae Johnson, has broadly questioned the validity of US election results but we could not immediately find public comments she has made about the validity of the 2020 results in particular.

Alabama: Wes Allen

Rep. Wes Allen speaks during debate on transgender bills during the legislative session in the house chamber at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday April 7, 2022.

State representative Wes Allen, who won Alabama's Republican nomination in a June runoff election, endorsed the Texas-led legal effort to get the Supreme Court to overturn Biden's victories in four states -- tweeting in December 2020 that Alabama's attorney general should "stand firm" in support.

Allen has vowed to withdraw Alabama from a 31-state consortium that helps member states keep their voter rolls up to date, baselessly alleging that the consortium, which is funded and run by member states, is a "leftist" entity. Alabama's departing Republican incumbent secretary of state, John Merrill, has called Allen's claims "patently false" and defended the consortium as an important election security tool.

The Democratic nominee is Pamela Laffitte, a corrections sergeant for a county sheriff's office.

Allen's campaign did not respond to a request for comment

Arizona: Mark Finchem

Arizona state representative Mark Finchem (R-AZ) speaks at a rally in Iowa State Fairgrounds, in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., October 9, 2021.

Mark Finchem is a far-right Arizona state representative who has for years promoted absurd conspiracy theories and other misinformation. Finchem has been aggressively dishonest about the 2020 election -- and he continues to push to "decertify" Biden's 2020 win in Arizona, though this cannot be done.

Finchem has repeatedly and falsely claimed that "Trump won" the election. He has falsely proclaimed that "the election was a fraud" and that it was "rigged." He demanded in mid-2021 that liberal officials and the media prove the falsity of election conspiracy theories that had already been proven false, even selling shirts reading "#ProveIt."

Finchem, who was endorsed by Trump last year and won the Republican primary earlier this month, played a key early role in the election-denying "Stop the Steal" movement in Arizona. After he attended the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington on January 6, 2021, he was photographed outside the US Capitol during the insurrection that day. He also tweeted a sympathetic message about the rioters, blaming Congress for refusing to acknowledge the "rampant fraud" that, again, didn't exist. (Finchem denies any involvement in the riot and has not been charged with anything.)

On the first anniversary of the insurrection, Finchem tweeted a false claim that "the real insurrection" was how Democratic officials in Arizona had rigged the election with "tens of thousands of fraudulent votes" in two big counties won by Biden. This is just fiction.

In July, Finchem baselessly called for the arrest of incumbent Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is now the Democratic nominee for governor, and Adrian Fontes, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state who oversaw the 2020 election in Maricopa County, where many Republicans have baselessly alleged mass fraud.

Finchem's campaign did not respond to a request for comment....

===

an 8 22

Former President Donald Trump suffered a major humiliation in Georgia when, in May, Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger crushed their “Stop the Steal” challengers in GOP primaries; Kemp, in fact, defeated the Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue by a brutal 52 percent. But in Arizona, another key swing state that President Joe Biden won in 2020, there were much different outcomes in Republican primaries that found the most extreme, far-right “Stop the Steal” MAGA candidates defeating more traditional conservatives. The Big Lie promoters who are now competing with Democratic nominees in the general election in Arizona include gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake, secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem and state attorney general nominee Abraham Hamadeh.

Lake, Finchem and Hamadeh have all falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump in Arizona through widespread voter fraud. It wasn’t; recount after recount has made it abundantly clear that Biden defeated Trump fair and square in Arizona, where on Election Night 2020, right-wing Fox News’ decision desk was the first to call the Grand Canyon State for Biden.

In an article published by Politico on August 18, Phoenix-based journalist Hank Stephenson — who co-founded the Arizona Agenda newsletter — describes a conflict within the Arizona GOP: far-right MAGA conspiracy theorists versus traditional conservatives. And Arizona’s traditional conservatives, according to Stephenson, fear that they’re losing the battle.

“When Arizona state lawmaker Mark Finchem, a 2020 election denier who deals in fringe legal theories, won the Republican nomination for secretary of state earlier this month, many of his GOP colleagues in the (Arizona) State Legislature couldn’t believe it,” Stephenson explains. “To be clear, they knew he would win — he had Donald Trump’s endorsement — but they were still stunned. Mark Finchem. Him. A back-bench lawmaker best known locally for his over-the-top drugstore cowboy get-ups and extreme ideas, Finchem would be in charge of the state’s elections should he win in November. That would also put him first in the line of succession for the governorship since Arizona doesn’t have a lieutenant governor.”

The political landscape in Arizona has changed dramatically from what it was back in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. In those days, Arizona was known for being a deep red state and was closely identified with Goldwater conservatism — as in Sen. Barry Goldwater and his successor, Sen. John McCain. Now, it is a swing state with two centrist Democratic U.S. senators: Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, who is running for reelection this year and is up against Trump-backed MAGA Republican Blake Masters.

These days, it isn’t uncommon to hear Arizona Democrats say that they miss the days of Goldwater/McCain conservatism — which is ironic in light of the fact that when Goldwater won the 1964 GOP presidential nomination, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) successfully painted him as an extremist who would get the U.S. into a nuclear war (the that sunk Goldwater’s 1964 campaign can be found on YouTube). But the MAGA Republicans of 2022 are way to the right of Goldwater, who was considered an arch-conservative in his day, and McCain. Democrat Sinema often praises McCain, who was proud to call himself a Goldwater conservative.

But while Arizona on the whole is much more of a swing state than it was 30 or 40 years ago, much of the Arizona GOP has been moving more and more to the MAGA far right.

“Trump’s slate of political insurgents swept the GOP nomination for every state office in which he offered his blessing, from the U.S. Senate down to state Senate races,” Stephenson explains. “After decades of civil war, the Arizona primaries mark a decisive swing in the state GOP’s balance of power. The center-right, pro-business wing of the party led by the late Sen. John McCain and Gov. Doug Ducey has been defeated, at least for now. Finchem and other far-right outsiders — the original Tea Party activists and the new Trumpist hardliners — have taken over…. Lake, a former TV news anchor, fended off more than $20 million in spending against her to narrowly capture the nomination, despite her opponent’s backing from Ducey, former GOP Gov. Jan Brewer and former Vice President Mike Pence.”

Stephenson warns that if Lake, Finchem and other MAGA Republicans are victorious in November and Trump runs for president in 2024, Trump could have “a slate of statewide officials who could steal the election for him” in Arizona.

Arizona State Sen. Paul Boyer, a conservative Republican who received death threats from MAGA extremists after refusing to go along with the Big Lie, decided not to seek reelection in 2022. Discussing the Arizona primary results with Politico, Boyer commented, “Abe Hamadeh for AG? Kari Lake for governor? It’s very simple. If you can fog up a mirror and win the ‘Arizona Apprentice,’ you’re good.”

Many Never Trump conservatives are hoping that if Democrats enjoy a lot of victories in Arizona in November, the Arizona GOP will move away from extremism. But Barrett Marson, a GOP consultant in the Grand Canyon State, isn’t so sure that MAGA losses in November would discourage the Arizona Republican Party from continuing to move in the direction.

Marson told Politico, “It may take a drubbing at the polls this year to get Republican voters off the Trump train. Or maybe they’ll just double down.”

===

ginni az email freeroots had link to his video botkin

//finchem

https://twitter.com/natedog155/status/1536052448795713544

twit natedog

no pix twt

'Nate dog'

@natedog155

Jun 12

thanks to

@visionsurreal

we now know Mark Finchem - an Arizona State Rep - who's currently running for Secretary of State - the top elections official in the state - shared the very same video of Geoffrey Botkin - though unclear to me if it was via Ginni Thomas or other sources.

'Nate dog'

===

ref

https://www.americanoversight.org/in-the-documents-new-details-about-the-origins-of-the-arizona-senates-discredited-election-audit

many lnx some gfx

PUBLISH DATE: MARCH 7, 2022

IN THE DOCUMENTS: NEW DETAILS ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THE ARIZONA SENATE’S DISCREDITED ELECTION ‘AUDIT’

Efforts to undermine the 2020 election results in Arizona led to the state Senate’s sham “audit” of votes cast in Maricopa County, which furthered lies about voter fraud and galvanized Big Lie proponents to undertake similar election-undermining exploits in other states. While officials claimed the review was designed to restore confidence in election integrity and expose purported fraud, documents uncovered through American Oversight’s public records litigation pointed to its origins in baseless conspiracy theories and post-election efforts to subvert the results of a free and fair election.

Below are additional details from American Oversight’s review of more than 80,000 pages of “audit”-related records released by the Arizona Senate in August 2021 in response to our ongoing lawsuit. The records include communications of state Sen. Kelly Townsend about the scheme to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory by appointing false, pro-Trump Arizona presidential electors, as well as emails from Senate President Karen Fann regarding her selection of the firm Cyber Ninjas to conduct the “audit.”

TOWNSEND’S RESOLUTION AND EFFORTS TO APPOINT ALTERNATE ELECTORS

The documents contain a December 2020 letter signed by Townsend, who had just been elected to the state Senate, addressed to then-Vice President Mike Pence asking that he “not accept” Arizona’s valid electors during the Jan. 6 congressional certification of the election results. It’s unclear whether Pence received the letter, but Townsend’s letter appears to be similar to one sent by state Rep. Jake Hoffman the day before the certification that, as reported recently by the Arizona Republic, also asked the vice president not to accept the state’s electoral votes.

Townsend’s letter is dated Dec. 31, 2020. That same day, she shared it in an email to Ron Hooper of the nonprofit U.S. Term Limits and investor Bradley Rotter and asked for feedback. Rotter replied, copying conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi as well as someone named Phil Cannon: “Please meet Corsi Undergrounder Phil Cannon who can get your letter to Keith Kellogg who is the Natl Security Advisor to the VP.”

The letter to Pence also referenced the “alternate slate of electors” sent by Arizona on Dec. 14, 2020, the day Arizona and multiple other states submitted forged electoral certificates to Congress, seeking to overturn Biden’s victory by falsely claiming their states’ electoral votes went to Trump.

On Jan. 5, 2021, Townsend introduced a resolution in the Arizona Senate to revoke Biden votes and appoint the alternate electors, among whom were Hoffman and Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. That same day, Townsend followed up on her email with a link to the resolution, writing, “This resolution to appoint the alternate slate of electors is prepared and ready for the election audit findings, should they result in what I expect to happen.” In December, state Senate leaders had issued subpoenas to Maricopa County demanding the release of ballots cast, voting machines, voter rolls, and other election information.

The records obtained by American Oversight also reveal that the office of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks — a congressman from Alabama who on Jan. 6 gave an inflammatory speech to Trump supporters outside the White House — was actively seeking information that could be used to challenge election results. On Dec. 22, 2020, a Brooks staffer emailed Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem indicating that the office was “putting together a master memo on the valid grounds” for objecting to the Electoral College certification.

The staffer also asked Finchem for a memo detailing “allegations of fraud and other election irregularities” from a meeting involving Rudy Giuliani that had been held on Nov. 30 in Phoenix. Later that day, a Townsend staffer sent a copy of Townsend’s resolution toBrooks’ office, asking to be notified once it was “submitted to Congress.”

On Jan. 5, Finchem circulated another letter addressed to Pence regarding the “reclamation of Electoral College Electors from Arizona,” signed by Finchem, Townsend, and other Arizona House and Senate members. State Sen. Sonny Borrelli forwarded the letter to Phillip Jauregui, the head of the conservative advocacy organization Judicial Action Group, writing: “Mark has the most updated list” — likely referring to the list of lawmakers signing the letter and resolution. Jauregui, who is based in Birmingham, Alabama, was later invited to the July 2021 election integrity call that included numerous election deniers across the country, including Finchem, Townsend, Brooks, and Brooks aide Madison Engelking.

FANN’S CORRESPONDENCE WITH CONSTITUENTS ON CHALLENGING THE ELECTION

On Dec. 13, 2020, in response to a constituent who demanded that the state Legislature “decertify” the election results, Arizona Senate President Fann said that she had met with a “nationally accredited constitutional attorney” and that lawmakers needed evidence of “clear fraud.”

“With respect to the US Constitution Article 2 and 3 provisions,” Fann wrote, “we spent an hour and a half with a nationally accredited constitutional attorney which was extremely interesting and I learned a lot. He stated that the ‘plenary clause’ allowing us to convene ourselves with a simple majority applies ‘when there is no clear winner of an election.’”

The records do not indicate the name of the attorney who spoke with Fann, but the idea that state legislatures, rather than the popular vote, could determine the winner of the election was frequently espoused by Trump allies. In a now-famous memo prepared around that time, Trump-allied lawyer John Eastman outlined a plan for Pence to reject the results from states with “dual slates of electors,” writing that Article II granted state legislatures “the plenary power to determine the manner for choosing presidential electors.”

In her email, Fann added that there had “been no proof provided to the courts” of significant voter fraud, but that the Senate was “committed to pursuing these claims” through an “audit” of Maricopa County, and referred to Jan. 6 as a deadline for altering the election’s results. “We are hoping any substantiated information from any state regarding voter fraud can be brought and verified by January 6th, 2021 when congress convenes to give the final ‘blessing’ on the election. That would be one of our last options to make a difference in the outcome of the 2020 election.”

FANN ON SELECTING CYBER NINJAS

In response to a July 2021 press inquiry from a far-right media outlet, Fann provided details about the process of hiring the firm Cyber Ninjas to conduct the election “audit,” which had begun in April.

Fann told the reporter that early in the process, she had asked the Federal Election Commission for a list of “certified forensic election auditors,” a designation that does not appear to exist.Cyber Ninjas had no election experience prior to the “audit,” and is not one of the two firms accredited by the Election Assistance Commission to certify voting machines; earlier in 2021, those two firms had been hired by Maricopa County to perform an audit of voting equipment and confirmed that the votes had been counted accurately.

Fann described reaching out to “people in other states who were already talking about audits” and asking contacts for recommendations. “It was part of this process that [Cyber Ninjas CEO] Doug Logan’s name came up along with many other referrals,” Fann wrote. “I was told Mr Logan was the gentleman working with the issues in Atrium [sic] County and Fulton County.”

Fann was likely referring to Michigan’s Antrim County,the home of a debunked report on fraud. But it is unclear from the email whether she is referring to Pennsylvania’s Fulton County — where the firm Wake TSI, which later joined Cyber Ninjas’ audit team in Arizona, conducted partisan audits of election equipment — or to Georgia’s Fulton County, home to Atlanta and a target of voter-fraud conspiracy theories. But the mention of efforts in other states to dig up evidence of purported fraud is yet another illustration of how activists and conservative allies across the country were often working together, with the same contractors and election conspiracy theorists. American Oversight is investigating similar efforts to undermine faith in our democracy in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas.

FANN EMAILS REGARDING TRUMP LEGAL TEAM

In other emails to constituents who complained that the election had been compromised, Fann often referred to the Trump legal team’s efforts and the hunt for evidence of significant fraud.

In an email sent Nov. 29, 2020, Fann wrote, “We have to show some credible evidence for ‘fraud’ before the courts or anyone else can do anything. I have asked the Trump legal team MANY times to please bring us their proof of fraud so we may act on it. To date they have not provided any proof.”

On Nov. 30, she wrote, “We have asked the Trump team to please supply the information to us and to please file a lawsuit so we can address this properly according to state laws. To date this information or lawsuit has not been provided in writing.”

To date, American Oversight has uncovered more than 100,000 pages of records from Arizona’s election “audit.” Previous findings — including Fann’s claim that she had received a personal call from Trump thanking her for her efforts — are available here. Our investigation is ongoing, and we are continuing to pursue the release of records held by both the Senate and Cyber Ninjas. Read more about that litigation here.

Part of Investigation:

Attacks on Voting Rights in Arizona

The Arizona Senate’s Partisan Audit of Maricopa County Election Results

The ‘Alternate Electors’ Plot to Overturn the 2020 Election

---

links

The letter to Pence also referenced the “alternate slate of electors” sent by Arizona on Dec. 14, 2020, the day Arizona and multiple other states submitted :{forged electoral certificates}: to Congress, seeking to overturn Biden’s victory by falsely claiming their states’ electoral votes :{went to Trump}:.

On Jan. 5, 2021, Townsend :{introduced}: a :{resolution}: in the Arizona Senate to revoke Biden votes and appoint the alternate electors, among whom were Hoffman and Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. That same day, Townsend followed up on her email with a link to the resolution, :{writing}:, “This resolution to appoint the alternate slate of electors is prepared and ready for the election audit findings, should they result in what I expect to happen.” In December, state Senate leaders had :{issued subpoenas}: to Maricopa County demanding the release of ballots cast, voting machines, voter rolls, and other election information.

The records obtained by American Oversight also reveal that the office of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks — a congressman from Alabama :{who on Jan. 6:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: gave an inflammatory speech to Trump supporters outside the White House — was actively seeking information that could be used to challenge election results. On Dec. 22, 2020, a Brooks staffer:{**emailed Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem**:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:indicating that the office was “putting together a master memo on the valid grounds” for objecting to the Electoral College certification.

The staffer also asked Finchem for a memo detailing “allegations of fraud and other election irregularities” from a :{meeting involving Rudy Giuliani:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: that had been held on Nov. 30 in Phoenix. Later that day, a Townsend staffer:{sent a copy of Townsend’s resolution:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: to Brooks’ office, asking to be notified once it was “submitted to Congress.”

On Jan. 5, Finchem circulated another :{letter:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: addressed to Pence regarding the “reclamation of Electoral College Electors from Arizona,” signed by Finchem, Townsend, and other Arizona House and Senate members. State Sen. Sonny Borrelli :{forwarded}::{ the letter}: to Phillip Jauregui, the head of the conservative advocacy organizationJudicial Action Group, :{writing: }:“Mark has the most updated list” — likely referring to the list of lawmakers signing the letter and resolution. Jauregui, who is based in Birmingham, Alabama, was later invited to the July 2021 :{election integrity call}: that included numerous election deniers across the country, including Finchem, Townsend, Brooks, and Brooks aide Madison Engelking...

===

https://www.americanoversight.org/december-2020-emails-to-arizona-lawmakers-reveal-election-deniers-plans-for-scanning-and-throwing-out-invalid-ballots

1/24

d:{ocuments:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: obtained by American Oversight and :{reported on by }::{:{Rolling Stone}:}: reveal that inearly December 2020, election-denying activists pushed Arizona state legislators to use untested technology to scan and toss out “invalid” ballots, thus handing the state’s electoral votes to then-President Donald Trump.

The emails, sent days before members of the Electoral College were set to cast their votes for president, also included members of Trump’s legal and campaign team and appear to be a precursor to the discredited “audit” of Maricopa County ballots that the Arizona Senate would later launch. Many of the emails were sent by :{**Phil Waldron**}:, the retired Army colonel who shared a :{PowerPoint}:outlining measures for overturning the 2020 election results with Trump allies and congressional offices in the days before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. :{Text messages}: previously uncovered by American Oversight indicated that Senate President Karen Fann had consulted with Waldron prior to hiring the inexperienced firm Cyber Ninjas to conduct the “audit.”

Included on Waldron’s emails to Arizona lawmakers were :{Bernard Kerik:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, an adviser to Trump’s legal team and an ally of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, as well as former Trump administration official :{Emily Newman:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: and Trump campaign lawyer :{Jenna Ellis:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, both of whom :{were involved:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: :{in advancing baseless voter-fraud claims:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: and lawsuits seeking to overturn results.

On Dec. 8, 2020, Waldron sent an :{email}: to state Rep. :{**Mark Finchem**}::{ :{—}:}: a :{vocal Trump supporter}: and major proponent of false voter-fraud claims — that included a “base research doc” on Arizona voting data. Kerik and Ellis were copied on the email, along with :{Russell Ramsland}:, the co-founder of Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG), which was behind that month’s debunked :{report}: on election fraud in Antrim County, Mich. Lawyer and lobbyist Katherine Friess, who was :{involved in the Antrim “audit,”}: also appears to have been added to the email.

Waldron then sent an :{email}: with the “Arizona data reporting” to Finchem, state Sen. Sonny Borrelli, Kerik, and Newman, outlining technology he claimed could detect fraudulent ballots. Waldron advocated obtaining images of the ballots, which his team would run through “optical scanning technology” that would “allow us to pull invalid votes out of the totals ‘By Candidate’ so that your state can certify normal elections and potentially not have to take extra legislative action.” :{Records previously}: obtained by American Oversight show that Borrelli then forwarded the email to all Arizona Senate Republicans.[8 15 22 trms reports on 6? states where voter//server info grabbed, some illegal]

Three days later, Waldron sent another :{email}: to :{Finchem}:, Borrelli, and state Sen. Eddie Farnsworth regarding the purported scanning technology. Waldron attached hundreds of pages of affidavits from election conspiracy theorist and treasure hunter Jovan Pulitzer, including about the ballot inspection technology he said he designed. Pulitzer, who :{claimed}: that fraudulent ballots could be detected by the absence of certain folds in the paper and was the :{likely source of}: the theory that fraudulent ballots containing bamboo fibers had been shipped from Asia, was copied on the email along with :{Ramsland}: and others.

In the email, Waldron :{falsely said}:that “scanned images are public records” in Arizona and that his team should “need no authoritative release requests” to access them. Waldron also suggested that his “local consultant and advisor” Lyle Rapacki, a :{conservative activist}: who has claimed that :{“demonic”}: forces led to Joe Biden’s win and who was also copied on the email, could travel to Maricopa County to load images of the scanned ballots onto a hard drive for inspection.

Less than a week after receiving this email, Farnsworth joined Fann in issuing a subpoena demanding that Maricopa County turn over all of its ballots, voting machines, and other records so that the Senate could conduct an “audit.”

Among the records obtained by American Oversight were communications between Arizona Sen.:{**Kelly Townsend**:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:and Michael Bowman, president of ALEC Action, the advocacy arm of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. In a November 2021 :{email:(style="box-sizing:inherit;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:, Townsend asked Bowman for advice on which ALEC committee would be best to discuss “election integrity” with. Bowman responded that Townsend should talk with ALEC’s “Process Working Group,” which was meeting in San Diego the following month.

Last week, the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected the state Senate’s broad use of legislative privilege to withhold records from the “audit” from public release in American Oversight’s lawsuit. And on Thursday, Cyber Ninjas and its CEO Doug Logan are scheduled to sit for a deposition regarding the firm’s failure to turn over public records to the Senate. Read more :{here}: about our ongoing investigation into efforts to sow doubt about the 2020 election in Arizona.

Part of Investigation:

===

rudy (jenna?) phoenix Hyatt mtg? one day after for legis?

===

spoke at jan 5 4:16 pm? right side b clip not scary

great thread sedition hunters:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/SeditionHunters?src=hashtag_click

https://twitter.com/capitolhunters

https://twitter.com/AE06788511/status/1399624552708075521

IamMarkFinchem 'served as "Arizona Coordinator" for [COWS], a group that supported the infamous armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016.' The ADL's Center on Extremism considers him an extremist.

...

To #IamMarkFinchem:"you communicated with leaders from the Stop the Steal organization regarding a [1/6] event on the U.S. Capitol grounds" and "you stated that you" had a letter for Pence "'asking him to consider postponing the award of electors.'":{https://}:january6th.house.gov/sites/democrat:{s.january6th.house.gov/files/2022-2-15.BGT%20Letter%20to%20Mark%20Finchem-Cover%20Letter%20and%20Schedule_Redacted.pdf}:

...

===

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-republican-mark-finchem-ali-alexander-jan-6-capitol-rally-riot-11532291

2/17/21

republican Arizona Representative Mark Finchem released text messages on Tuesday that show him coordinating with Ali Alexander, a prominent conservative activist who helped organize the infamous January 6 rally at the U.S. Capitol that became a deadly riot,about Finchem's appearance at the event and the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

The texts discussed Finchem and Alexander coordinating on messaging and travel plans related to "Stop the Steal" rallies in Arizona and in Washington D.C. Other texts discussed how to help Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton'sDecember lawsuit to try and overturn the election results.

Alexander has come under scrutinyfor his prominent role in promoting the Republican effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and the rally that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol — as well as his ties to other Arizona elected officials. He claimed in a video that he "schemed up" the plan to use public protest to pressure congress during Congress's certification of the electoral college votes with Arizona Republican Congressmen Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs. Biggs has denied any involvement with him. Alexander was in Phoenix on December 19 for a "Stop the Steal" rally, according to news reports, and in a recent interview, he said the "Stop the Steal" movement in Arizona "started with" Finchem.

Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward also famously promoted violence by promoting a tweet from Alexander that read, "I am willing to give my life for this fight."

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona — 27 more than previously known — to set aside Joe Biden’s popular vote victory and “choose” presidential electors, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.

On Nov. 9, she sent identical emails to 20 members of the Arizona House and seven Arizona state senators. That represents more than half of the Republican members of the state legislature at the time.

The message, just days after media organizations called the race for Biden in Arizona and nationwide, urged lawmakers to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure” and claimed that the responsibility to choose electors was “yours and yours alone.” They had “power to fight back against fraud” and “ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen,” the email said.

Among the lawmakers who received the email was then-Rep. Anthony Kern, a Stop the Steal supporter who lost his reelection bid in November 2020[.]

Kern did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.He is seeking his party’s nomination for a seat in the Arizona state Senate and has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

...

On Dec. 13, the day before members of the electoral college were slated to cast their votes and seal Biden’s victory, Thomas emailed 22 House members and one senator. “Before you choose your state’s Electors … consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don’t stand up and lead,” the email said. It linked to a video of a man urging swing-state lawmakers to “put things right” and “not give in to cowardice.”

Speaker of the House Russell “Rusty” Bowers and Rep. Shawnna Bolick, the two recipients previously identified, told The Post in May that the outreach from Thomas had no bearing on their decisions about how to handle claims of election fraud. [Bolick signed the letter sent by Arizona legislators to not certify the election.]

The Post obtained the emails under Arizona’s public records law, which — unlike the laws in some other key 2020 swing states — allows the public to access emails, text messages and other written communications to and from state lawmakers. You too can do this!

[On] Dec. 14, 2020, Biden electors in Arizona cast their votes, after the election results were certified by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) and Gov. Doug Ducey (R).

“Fake” Trump electors met in Arizona that day and signed a document [falsely] declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified Electors.” One of them was Kern, the outgoing state representative.

Kern was among more than a dozen lawmakers who signed on to a letter to Congress that same day calling for the state’s electoral votes to go to Trump or “be nullified completely until a full forensic audit can be conducted.” See post above.

The lawmakers’ letter was an exhibit in Kern and Gohmert’s lawsuit asking a federal court to rule that Pence had the “exclusive authority and sole discretion” in deciding which electoral votes to count for a given state. The plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to intervene after the case was dismissed in lower courts. The day after the Jan. 6 insurrection, the court declined in an unsigned order.

...

Ali Alexander is a cooperating witness and that affects Biggs, Gosar

Ali Alexander, the architect of the “Stop the Steal” movement, cooperated with the committee early on, and that could shed light on what more the panel has learned about Arizona Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

It’s unclear when Alexander’s contributions may come up, but when they do, it could offer some of the most important information the committee gathered involving two of the more controversial members of Congress.

In a since-deleted social media post before the attack on the Capitol, Alexander singled out Biggs and Gosar, along with Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., for helping give his group’s effort success.

See the Washington Post, A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally, and The Intercept, Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs Helped Plan January 6 Event, Lead Organizer Says.

Alexander called Gosar the movement’s “spirit animal” and said he spoke “in person” to Biggs. A spokesman for Biggs insisted in the days after the riot that Biggs had no direct contact with Alexander, so their interaction remains a point of wide factual dispute.

Alexander also had ties to state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, and former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, who spoke at “Stop the Steal” rallies and were at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Finchem and Kern were mingling with crowds amassed on the Capitol steps, photos, texts and social media accounts show.[pix]

===

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/06/02/mark-finchem-was-much-closer-to-the-jan-6-insurrection-than-he-claimed/

Newly discovered footage taken during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot shows Arizona GOP legislator Mark Finchem was much closer to the day’s violence than he has previously claimed.

Finchem has insisted that he :{never got within 500 yards of the Capitol building}:, but :{Getty footage}: of the failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election that was recently :{discovered by activists on Twitter}: shows Finchem walking directly in front of the east steps at the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters had already broken through a series of barricades and police lines, and then smashed their way into the Capitol building.

...

Finchem, who is from Oro Valley and is running to be secretary of state, did not respond to a request for comment confirming if the man in the video was him, but the :{high-resolution video}: clearly shows Finchem wearing the same hat, jacket and VIP lanyard he had been :{seen wearing throughout the day}:.

In the past, Finchem has refused to speak in detail about the events of the day, and text messages he released to bolster his claims have instead conflicted with :{previous statements he has made}:.

[twt]

:{ Screenshot via Twitter

Finchem also posted a photograph of rioters on the east steps on social media, praising the insurrectionists for standing up to Congress. The area in which the photo was likely taken appears to be roughly 100 yards away from the east steps of the Capitol.

There is no way Finchem could have been 500 yards away — more than a quarter of a mile— and taken the photo of the steps that he published on Twitter. The furthest point from the east Capitol steps before one hits the Capitol Reflecting Pool, the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, is approximately 320 yards away.

The Arizona Mirror has analyzed video footage, social media posts and more to create a timeline of where Finchem was that day.

The day before Trump supporters failed to overthrow Congress, Finchem addressed a crowd of Trump loyalists, joking that the day’s rain storm was God washing away the stench of Washington, D.C. The “pre-rally” held on Jan. 5 at Freedom Plaza contained a who’s who of the political fringe and members of the #StopTheSteal movement.Finchem was introduced by Ali Alexander, a #StopTheSteal leader and the organizer of that day’s rally and the larger one on Jan. 6, at which Trump:{implored his followers to march to the Capitol}: and “show strength” to stop a “rigged” election.

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” the ex-president said shortly before the coup attempt.

Alexander praised Finchem, one of his strongest allies in Arizona and a leader in the state’s effort to undermine Joe Biden’s narrow win.

“The storm is here,” Alexander said, referencing the :{QAnon conspiracy theory}:, before :{introducing Finchem}: as his “friend.”

:{In }:{, Finchem baselessly told the crowd that Trump’s electoral loss was fraudulent and that Democrats knew the election was stolen. There is no credible evidence supporting those claims. }:

“I want you to hear a message from Americans,” Finchem said, speaking directly to lawmakers who questioned #StopTheSteal activists. “This ain’t going away.”

The next day, Finchem attended President Donald Trump’s speech at The Ellipse in President’s Park, just south of the White House. He can be seen in one video posted on Facebook :{walking by the front of the stage}: wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a dark jacket with rectangular patches on the shoulders. At 10:48 a.m., his back can be seen :{in a photo posted on Twitter}: by fellow Arizona Republican lawmaker Anthony Kern on Twitter.

The first skirmishes with police at the Capitol :{would begin at around 1 p.m.}: and Finchem has previously said he arrived at the east side of the Capitol [jnz said prez rendezvous pt?] at around 1:45 p.m. Finchem has continued to :{struggle with his story}: on where he was when that day, and has gone as far as claiming that Democrats — not his fellow Trump supporters who marched alongside him from Trump’s speech — were responsible for the day’s violence.

At 1:50 p.m., the on-scene Metro Police Department commander :{had declared a riot}:.

In :{text messages released}: by Finchem, he texted fellow #StopTheSteal advocates :{Michael Coudrey}: and Alexander that he was on his way in a golf cart.

appears to show Finchem riding in the back of a golf cart, wearing the same hat and jacket from hours earlier.

At 3:16 p.m., Finchem tweeted a photo of Capitol rioters saying, “What happens when People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud. #stopthesteal.”

But the Mirror’s analysis indicates that Finchem took the photo some time before he posted it online. Videos posted on the social media platform Parler that were aggregated by ProPublica and organized by the times they were posted and where they were takenmakes it likely that Finchem took his photo at least 40 minutes earlier.

In the :{video posted on Parler}:, protesters can be heard singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The video features awoman in a yellow jacketwho is prominently seen in Finchem’s photo, and many of the same flags being carried by rioters can be seen in both.

The video was posted at approximately 2:35 p.m. near the east Capitol steps, where conspiracy-peddling media figure Alex Jones and Alexander had led many of the protesters just a few minutes earlier :{leading a chant of “1776.”}:

In the newly found Getty footage, Finchem can be seen walking through the crowd he had earlier photographed. He is easily identified by his cowboy hat and jacket with shoulder patches. It is unclear exactly what time Finchem is walking through the crowd, but it appears to be after Finchem took his photo, as many of the people and flags are now gone.

At around the same time in nearby parts of the Capitol, police were :{violently clashing with protesters}:, using :{tear gas and pepper spray}: to disperse the crowds and rioters :{had already breached the Capitol}:. Finchem would say that he was unaware of the violence until 5 p.m. that day when he was getting ready for a podcast interview.

Later that night, Finchem would tweet complaining that the D.C. Police were preventing a GrubHub driver from delivering food to his hotel, blaming the “commie” Mayor of D.C..

Finchem has :{blamed antifa for the violence}: and :{vowed to sue those who try to connect him to the events of Jan. 6}:, going as far as filing a :{cease and desist against a recall campaign}: that has been using his attendance at the day’s events as a reason to remove him from office.

One point of contention for Finchem in :{the cease-and-desist letter}: is the connection to the extremist Oath Keepers organization that the recall organizers have pointed out.

Finchem has :{long been tied to the organization}:, but in his cease-and-desist letter, his lawyer states that the Oath Keepers is a “non-partisan” group and called allegations that it is anti-government to be “spurious claims.” The letter also calls the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website “hate-filled.”

The :{FBI describes the Oath Keepers}: as a “loosely organized collection of militia who believe that the federal government have been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.”

:{Nineteen Oath Keepers have been indicted:(style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:#ffff66;"):}: thus far in a case that claims they coordinated to conspire to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, with prosecutors saying that more could be prosecuted in the future.

===

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/02/10/there-wouldnt-have-been-a-stopthesteal-campaign-in-arizona-without-mark-finchem/

there wouldn’t have been a #StopTheSteal campaign in Arizona without Mark Finchem

BY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY - FEBRUARY 10, 2021

The lead organizer of the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that turned into a deadly coup attempt based on the false idea that Donald Trump failed to win a second term as president because of massive voter fraud said Arizona’s #StopTheSteal movement started with one man: Mark Finchem.

“Arizona started with one man, State Representative Mark Finchem,” Alexander said to an interviewer }:{**Church Militant**:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}::{:{ on Jan. 10. “I’m very confident that the Stop The Steal movement has taken over Arizona.”}::{ no twt}:

Finchem frequently spouted misinformation about the 2020 elections, much of which was flagged by Twitter as being incorrect, and was the driving force in Arizona for an event at a Phoenix hotel in late November.At that event, Trump’s lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and other pro-Trump figures :{gathered with state GOP lawmakers and the president’s supporters}: to discuss baseless theories that Joe Biden won Arizona’s election by fraud.

In the same video clip, Alexander claims that only nine prominent Arizona Republicans were involved in the movement before that meeting, but that the number had swelled to 50 afterward.

Finchem was present at the Jan. 6 rally and marched to the Capitol, and he praised the rioters on Twitter.

the Oro Valley Republican first publicly mentioned Alexander in a December tweet, thanking the activist and saying there wouldn’t be an audit of the Maricopa County election without his help.

“I would like to thank @ali and @MichaelCoudrey for coming to fight for Arizona. #StopTheSteal has been instrumental in fighting the election fraud we’ve discovered! Without your 2000+ patriots we wouldn’t be auditing Maricopa County,” Finchem wrote on December 5.

The tweet garnered over 2,100 likes and over 480 retweets.

The tweet also mentioned Michael Coudrey,an investor and far-right internet personality who has :{spread false election information}: and led #StopTheSteal :{rallies across the country}:.

Finchem deleted his twitter account after the Capitol insurrection, but the Arizona Mirror was able to obtain copies of his tweets going to 2012. Finchem did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Alexander, a :{right-wing personality:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and :{former felon:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, started the “Stop the Steal” movement. In a :{since deleted video:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, he said the Jan. 6 rally :{was planned with Arizona Republican Congressmen Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, as well as Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks. Biggs has since :{denied the allegations:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

But Arizona lawmakers Biggs and Gosar seem to not be the only lawmakers with a connection to the man who is now :{allegedly in hiding after the events of Jan. 6}:.

On December 11, Finchem tweeted at Alexander about the Jan. 6 event.

“@ali I’ll be there! #stopthesteal #jerichomarch,” Finchem wrote.

The second hashtag relates to a separate march :{that was happening on the same day:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: that consisted of Christians praying, fasting and blowing ritual :{Jewish horns called shofars:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: before circling the Capitol building seven times like the siege of the City of Jericho described in the Bible.

In the biblical story, the Israelites’s god caused the walls of the city to fall, allowing the army to enter the city and :{slaughter every man, woman and child}:. The organizers of the Jericho March have :{denounced the violence}: that took place Jan. 6, saying their goal was for peaceful prayer.

In the time leading up to Jan. 6, Finchem also tweeted at Alexander and others about his desire to convert his colleagues over to the “#StopTheSteal” movement.

“The ‘protests not events’, as @ali puts it, that #stopthesteal has thrown around the U.S., but particularly here in Arizona, has empowered me to fight for Trump and convert my colleagues,” Finchem said on Dec. 20 beforethanking Coudrey and Brandon Straka,who :{has been arrested for his connections to the Jan. 6 riot:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

The Republican legislator also promoted the hashtag prominently on his Twitter, with tweets featuring it often garnering hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes.

“With the People dug in demanding a forensic audit, and the establishment asserting its oligarchy-based power, a lot of establishment types are now outing themselves. If you don’t stand for the Constitution and your oath, we’ve already lost our republic. #stopthesteal,” he wrote on Dec. 9.

In total, Finchem used the hashtag 62 times from Nov. 19 to Jan. 6. After the violence of Jan. 6, Finchem stopped using the hashtag.

On Jan. 2, Finchem wrote that he would be heading to the nation’s capital.

“I will be in Washington DC on January 6 to #StopTheSteal and fight for President @realDonaldTrump,” Finchem said. “This is one of the most important days our republic has ever seen. We need all hands on deck.”

The tweet included a location and time for the event as well as a link to RSVP. The location was the U.S. Capitol.

Democrats are trying to expel Finchem from the legislature.

finchem :{has since said:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: that he was in D.C. “to deliver an evidence book and letter to Vice President (Mike) Pence” to persuade him to delay presiding over the certification of the presidential election. He said he was scheduled to speak at a press conference on the Capitol steps while Congress was certifying the election,but was delayed in arriving because he attended Trump’s speech at the Ellipse and joined the march to the Capitol “at the rear of the crowd.”

Finchem was at the Capitol when Trump supporters engaged in a violent coup attempt, in the hopes of stopping Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. On his Twitter page, Finchem posted a photo he took of the Capitol after rioters and protesters had breached the inner areas of the Capitol grounds.

“What happens when the People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud,” he wrote, praising the rioters.

Finchem has claimed that :{“antifa” was behind the violence}: — something federal investigators have said is untrue. He also has said that he did not get within 500 yards of the building, andwas unaware the Capitol was breached until later that day.

On Jan. 18, twelve days after the violence in D.C., Finchem told his followers he would be leaving Twitter in favor of Gab — a social media platform most famous for it’s far-right user base, including the :{Tree of Life shooter}:, who posted to the site before murdering 11 people — where he posts under the username AzHoneyBadger.

===

https://www.azmirror.com**/2021/02**/08/democrats-want-mark-finchem-expelled-from-the-arizona-legislature/

Democrats on Monday introduced a resolution to expel a Republican state lawmaker for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, his ties to extremist groupsand for spreading misinformation about the election.

Those things make Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, unfit to serve in the Arizona Legislature, saidRep. Athena Salman, D-Tempe.

Her :{House Resolution 2006}: ties Finchem to the riots in Washington, D.C., as well as comments made by the event’s main organizer, :{Ali Alexander}:.

“What happens when the People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud,” he wrote, praising the rioters.

Finchem has since deleted his Twitter account. He did not respond to a request for comment.

State Rep. César Chávez, D-Phoenix, :{filed an ethics complaint:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: about the tweet, arguing that it showed Finchem participated in the insurrection. The House Ethics Committee has not acted on the complaint.

Salman said that legislative Republicans, who control the House of Representatives by a single vote, have shown they won’t hold Finchem accountable.

“The majority party has failed to take the most minimal action,” Salman said at a press conference Monday. “Due to their inaction, Representative Fincehm has tried to hide his actions.”

Salman brought up recent news that Finchem was :{paid $6,000 by the Trump campaign:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:for “recount: legal consulting” after the election and :{has battled the release of records requested:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by the Arizona Republicin relation to the Jan. 6 riots. Finchem, a licensed real estate agent, is not an attorney.

An Arizona Mirror analysis of tweets from Finchem’s now-deleted Twitter account found that thelawmaker used the hashtag “#StopTheSteal” a total of 62 times from Nov. 19 to Jan. 6.

“I demand his immediate expulsion,” Ret. Lt. Col. Dana Allmond said at the presser. Allmond, a West Point graduate who resides in Finchem’s legislative district, said the Republican lawmaker poses a “clear and present danger” to the country and Arizona’s legislature.

The resolution is unlikely to succeed because it can’t advance without GOP backing. Republicans would have to first consider it in committee, and then allow it to come to the floor for a vote. Were that to happen, Finchem would only be expelled if two-thirds of the House voted for the resolution.

“There is a line between First Amendment speech and inciting the overthrow of a free and fair election,” Salman said.

Salman’s resolution also notes Finchem’s ties to the anti-government extremist group the Oath Keepers. Three members of the group :{have been indicted:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: for conspiracy related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, and the group has :{been preparing for a civil war:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: since before the November election.

Finchem has :{acknowledged being a member of the group}:, whose leader in the past has called for the :{execution of the late Sen. John McCain}:.

The group has :{had multiple ties to the Jan. 6 coup attempt}:, and long-time Trump ally Roger Stone was also :{seen alongside the group on Jan. 6}:.

Finchem also has ties to Washington lawmaker Matt Shea who was :{accused of domestic terrorism:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by his state’s legislature for his role in armed standoffs in Oregon, Nevada and Idaho. Finchem was a part of an organization called the Coalition of Western States that Shea used to work behind the scenes to feed information to the armed men, the Washington report claimed.

===

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/05/05/where-was-anthony-kern-on-jan-6/

Newly reviewed footage by Arizona Mirror raises new questions about former Republican lawmaker Anthony Kern’s activities around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as the lawmaker continues to participate in a recount of Maricopa County’s ballots from the 2020 general election.

Kern has continually insisted that he did not breach the Capitol and no footage or other evidence suggested otherwise. Photos show Kern on the front steps.

However, footage reviewed by the Mirror shows that Kern was present at other parts of the Capitol breached by protesters.

:{In a }:{ by a Virginia House of Delegates candidate who attended the protest turned riot, Kern can be seen walking along the West Front area of the Capitol as well. }:

The Mirror analyzed videos :{archived by ProPublica}: to determine around what time the video may have been taken and when Kern may have been in this particular area of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

In the video posted on YouTube, a large Trump flag is draped over part of the Capitol building that isn’t seen in many of the videos posted by rioters on the social media platform Parler :{until shortly after 3 p.m.}:

By this time in the day, protests in this area of the Capitol had already :{been violent for some time}: and protesters :{had already broken in}: or were in the process of :{breaking into the Capitol}:.

They had been :{violently clashing with police}:, throwing water bottles, pushing, punching and finding ways past the D.C. Metro Police, who eventually fell back.

“Come straight, go this way,” an unidentified man in a blue suit says to Kern, leading him through the area seen in the video. The man can be :{seen in photos with Kern on the Capitol steps}: holding a sign that reads “Save America” with the url “TrumpMarch.com” which now redirects to :{Women for America First}:.

Kern, a Republican from Glendale, did not respond to the Mirror’s questions about the video, who the man in the suit was or provide further details about his activities on Jan. 6 and whether he was aware of the scope of the violence that had occurred by that point.

Kern has been a proponent of the “#StopTheSteal” movement since the election, using the hashtag 17 times on Twitter from November through Jan. 6.

“D-Day in DC to support Arizona’s and America’s duly elected President Donald Trump! #StoptheSteal,” :{Kern tweeted on Jan. 6}: around 10 a.m. with a picture of the stage where Trump would soon speak.

Both Kern and state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, have come under fire for their presence in D.C. on Jan. 6 with Arizona Democrats asking the Department of Justice and FBI to :{investigate their roles:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: in the violence that occurred.

Kern would later say :{he agreed with Republican Congressman Andy Biggs}: that those who broke the law should be prosecuted and that he condemned the violence that occurred that day.

JAN 5 The day before, Kern rallied outside the Capitol with a who’s who of Stop the Steal personas, including the movement’s ringleader, :{Ali Alexander:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, and election fraud conspiracy promoter, Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow.

“In Arizona there is a brave man that I am trying to convince to run for state senate or Congress, Anthony Kern,” Alexander said:{before Kern took the stage}: as rain poured down on Jan. 5.

“Mitch McConnell, I am not worried about optics here today,” Kern told the crowd before speaking about abortion and comparing the situation to the invasion of Normandy in World War II. “We will not allow the vote to be stolen from our duly elected president.”

There is no evidence that fraud or malfeasance affected the outcome of the presidential election.

On Jan. 6, Kern tweeted in the morning before Trump’s speech and did not tweet again until 3 p.m. That tweet was an image of the Capitol steps, :{overtaken by protesters}:.

Images circulated online showing :{Kern among those protesters on the steps}: and he later mocked some of his critics on Twitter.

“You ok @AzHouseDems? Want me to call the police?” he :{tweeted:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: on April 19, responding to criticism by the Arizona House Democratic caucus after news broke that Kern was working on the Arizona audit .

After Kern announced on Twitter that he would participate in the audit, former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a spokesman for the audit, told theMirrorthat the ex-lawmaker would only be serving as a volunteer observer, not counting ballots. Reporters later spotted Kern counting ballots at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Bennett said he’d seen Kern’s name on a list of volunteer observers but didn’t realize that he had also applied to work as a counter.

Kern, who was still a lawmaker the day of the riot, has fought the release of his phone records :{related to the events of the day}:. Finchem has released some of the messages that were requested by the Arizona Republic which show that he and Alexander :{coordinated on some Stop the Steal-related events}: in Arizona and D.C. Kern has yet to release any records.

===

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/07/mark-finchem-arizona-midterm-elections/670495/

===

no lnx quite a few

The Bannon Strategy

Fringe candidates promising to stop the steal, like Mark Finchem in Arizona, might just have their year.

By Elaine Godfrey

JULY 14, 2022

You’d think that by now, Mark Finchem would be tired of subverting American democracy. For nearly two years, the Arizona state lawmaker has pushed Donald Trump’s stolen-election lies everywhere he possibly can—QAnon talk shows, Steve Bannon’s podcast, outside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6—and all with the dutiful enthusiasm of a Boy Scout. Despite the lack of any evidence, Finchem has continued to assert that Trump, not Joe Biden, won the 2020 election. This claim has been the bedrock of Finchem’s campaign for Arizona secretary of state.

Finchem, who wears a cowboy hat and bolo tie despite having spent most of his life in Michigan,is not destined to win. He leads the Republican primary, but the party’s voters are still mostly undecided, and he could be a tough sell for independents in a general election. Still, Finchem’s candidacy is one to watch. He and the dozens of other election-denying candidates running across the country are the electoral legacy of January 6 in America. They present the most significant threat to American democracy in decades. And despite the expected electoral hurdles, this might just be their year.

If you’re a hard-right Republican, now “is the time to be running,” the Arizona pollster Mike Noble told me. Biden’s poll ratings, even among Democrats, are plummeting, and the president’s party typically loses ground in midterm elections. “The red wave’s a-comin’—and a lot of people will be able to surf in [to office] who are typically on the fringe,” Noble said. Which means that Finchem, the man who brought the “Stop the Steal” movement to Arizona, might soon be in charge of this swing state’s elections.

[Read: She defended democracy. Do voters care?

After working for 21 years in the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, Finchem moved to Arizona, where he was elected in 2014 to the state’s House of Representatives to represent a rural district north of Tucson. In his adopted state, Finchem is well known for his distinct home-on-the-range vibes: thick mustache, conservative policy views, and an abiding distrust of the federal government. For a while, he was the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Western States, a group that supported the armed occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016, and he’s identified himself as a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group. But what has earned the lawmaker statewide name recognition—and the attention of the broader MAGA movement—has been his dedication to the Stop the Steal cause. (Finchem did not respond to requests for comment.)

Finchem was present for the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. He tweeted that the riot was “what happens when the People feel ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud.”Although Finchem has denied being closer than 500 yards to the Capitol building that day, photos appear to show him standing in the crowd just outside its east steps right after Trump supporters had stormed it. Ali Alexander, the founder of the Stop the Steal campaign, has credited Finchem for single-handedly bringing the antidemocratic movement to Arizona. After the state certified Biden’s win over Trump in 2020, and after subsequent official audits confirmed that result, Finchem and other local Trump allies insisted that there was—there had to be—evidence of widespread fraud. He held firm, even after the partisan review he’d supported turned up nothing.

He started posting his theories on MAGA social-media sites such as Gab, where he goes by the username @AZHoneyBadger. He appeared on a number of far-right programs, including more than80 times on Bannon’s War Room podcast alone, to warn of election-fraud bombshells that never seem to actually explode. Bannon, a former Trump adviser, credits his show with Finchem’s rise: “He was almost like a contributor to War Room for a moment,” Bannon told me. “War Room made him a thing.”

Unsurprisingly, Finchem has secured Trump’s endorsement. During his campaign for secretary of state, Finchem has continued to call for the 2020 election to be decertified, and has advocated for laws that he says would make future elections more secure, co-sponsoring legislation that would allow lawmakers to reject election results, and that would restrict early and mail-in voting. (Finchem opposes early voting, despite having voted early in almost every election since 2004, according to The Arizona Republic.) He also recently filed a lawsuit with the gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake—also endorsed by Trump—to ban the use of electronic voting machines and require that all ballots be counted by hand.

“If we don’t get to the bottom of the fraud that was committed in 2020, it will be pervasive in ’22, ’24, [and] ’26,” Finchem told an interviewer from a right-wing website last month, during an unofficial hearing about the thousands of supposed “counterfeit ballots” submitted in 2020. Americans believe “that we have compromised elections in every state and every county,” Finchem said.

[Read: Trump’s next coup has already begun

Hundreds of people have emerged from the proverbial political woodwork since 2020 to attach themselves to the fever dreams of a sore loser. Arizona has a passel of these Stop the Steal candidates and politicians, including Lake, who has called Biden an “illegitimate president”; State Senator Wendy Rogers, who encouraged people to “buy more ammo” as Arizona electors were casting their ballots in 2020; and state GOP leader Kelli Ward, who was recently subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation into fake slates of electors convened by the Trump campaign in 2020. But the trend is hardly limited to the Grand Canyon State. Finchem is part of the America First Secretary of State Coalition,a group of election deniers running for the job in a dozen states. Four members of that slate have earned their party’s nomination this year, including Kristina Karamo in Michigan, whom I wrote about last month. Doug Mastriano, who is also part of the coalition, won the GOP’s nomination for governor this year in Pennsylvania and can appoint the secretary of state once in office.

Finchem’s is one among many once-minor (or at least less partisan, less politicized, and less well-financed) state races that have become the target of Trump allies nationwide. And the effort extends to far more junior positions too. Election deniers across America are running to be poll workers and precinct officers and county clerks, positions that have never before received so much attention. “We’re going to take this back village by village … precinct by precinct,” Bannon announced on his podcast last year.

The goal, broadly speaking, is to continue investigating the 2020 election and, in some cases, even to attempt to “decertify” 2020 state results, a move that has no legal basis. What’s the harm in asking questions? candidates like Finchem and the others argue when criticized. We’re protecting future elections! But their investigations only serve to breathe more and more oxygen into conspiracy theories that undermine confidence in American democracy. “There is harm,” Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the Democracy Fund, a private foundation working to improve the democratic process in the U.S., told me, “if they refuse to accept the answer.”

Finchem is up against three other primary candidates, and although he has a small lead in recent polling, most Arizona voters are still undecided. (Early voting began in Arizona last week.) Winning a general election would be tough. Even if he does end up in office, some Republicans argue that he wouldn’t pose a risk to democracy. As secretary of state, “he’d follow the law. He may want the law to be different, but he’d follow it,” Chuck Warren, a state GOP strategist, told me. Despite his reputation as a fringy kook, Finchem has integrity, some of his allies told me. He “has dedicated a good part of his life to protecting and serving the public,” says Teresa Martinez, a colleague of Finchem’s in the state House.

But Finchem has spent two solid years trafficking in lies. He’s demonstrated that, through ignorance or cynicism, he is not willing to prioritize the truth over the wild claims of a man desperate for power. Again and again—and mostly on the condition of anonymity—other state Republican advisers and strategists told me that they dread the idea of Finchem in an election-oversight role. In a tight vote, “I would absolutely expect Finchem to both bend the meaning of laws and throw up roadblocks to the normal election procedures,” Barrett Marson, an Arizona GOP consultant, told me.

[Read: The Republican Party’s midterm wackadoodle wave

A nightmare scenario in 2024 isn’t hard to conjure: As secretary of state, Finchem could try to muddy the waters after an election outcome that he or Trump didn’t like by delaying or undermining the election-certification process. If the governor or attorney general shared his desire, they could decide not to certify the election. Arizona on its own might not be enough to tip a general election—Biden would still have won if this scenario had played out in 2020—but if leaders in other states, say Michigan and Pennsylvania, do the same, the election outcome could be subverted.

The midterms will be the first major elections held since Trump lost in 2020. They will test how Americans feel about the sore losers who have spent almost two years crying conspiracy and fraud—and whether this precinct strategy to undermine the country’s democratic system was worth the effort. Will November’s results signal a return to simpler times, when candidates with fewer votes accepted defeat? Or will the midterms confirm that we have entered a new era of postelection doubt-casting and lie-peddling?

Americans’ freedom begins with secretaries of state, Finchem said during the interview at the hearing last month. “This has been the most overlooked office for years, but that’s how they got away with it,” he told the interviewer. “It was supposed to be boring—vanilla. Not so much so anymore.”

Elaine Godfrey is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

===

no lnx

https://www.**tucsonweekly**.com/tucson/finchems-scary-past-and-dangerous-future-why-you-should-not-vote-him-secretary-of-state/Content?oid=31636163

December 02, 2021

Finchem’s Scary Past and Dangerous Future: Why You Should Not Vote Him Secretary of State

By Jake Dean

State Rep. Mark Finchem says Ducey's extension of Arizona's stay-at-home order was "wholly unacceptable."

Oro Valley is probably not the first place you would envision a threat to Arizona democracy rising quickly from the desert sand. Alas, a threat is out there slowly rattling his tail. As I recently detailed for the Weekly (“Ballot Box BS,” Oct. 28), it is from there that Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem is becoming a rising player in Trumpian efforts to subvert the rightful results of the 2020 election. Unfortunately for his constituents and the entire state, this is just one act in a laundry list of bad decisions Finchem has made in his time in Arizona politics. So, given his announcement of a run for Secretary of State as one four current GOP candidates, it is critical to take a look back at the history and résumé of Trump’s preferred pick for one Arizona’s highest ranking politicians. (Finchem declined to be interviewed for this article, saying he was traveling and unavailable for a phone call.)

Before digging deep into Finchem’s political past, let us briefly get to know him. According to his own campaign page, Finchem was born in Detroit and served over 20 years in the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety—in roles from enforcement to firefighting. Upon his retirement, he moved to Tucson and worked in software and real estate. Then in 2019, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government with an emphasis in State and Local Public Policy from Grand Canyon University.

However, his political career (and interest in politics) had begun years prior when he won the 2014 General Election to serve as a State Representative for Arizona’s District 11—which currently spans from Oro Valley to the Town of Maricopa. Through that political career, it seems that GCU’s curriculum and the classes he currently takes in his Master of Legal Studies program at the University of Arizona (where he has previously lied about being a “Legislative Fellow in Residence”) have failed to teach him much about the law, the truth or good governance. So while the effort at recalling him from his seat as a state representative failed this past summer, Finchem cannot be allowed to take charge of elections in our state.

To understand why, let us delve into Finchem’s behavior, legislative history, and conspiracy consumption.

Conspiracies, Militias, the Far-Right and Finchem

Finchem is no stranger to conspiracies and the far-right. In fact, before heading to the Arizona Legislature, he had already joined the Oath Keepers—who played a leading role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the militia group is “founded on the belief that the federal government is part of an evil conspiracy intent on stripping Americans of their natural rights and freedoms.”Its members have encouraged violence in opposition. The founder of Oath Keepers has previously encouraged the murder of elected officials, including in 2015 openly calling for the late Sen. John McCain to be put to death by hanging.

And Finchem’s concerning far-right, conspiracy-laden ties only grow from there.

He previously served as the Arizona coordinator for the Coalition of Western States—a group of legislators and activists who supported the armed occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. He also signed a letter of support to pardon arsonists who burned federal government land. It was their initial arrest that eventually led to tensions at Malheur.

Following the horrific events of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, Finchem denied any far-right involvement in the event—claiming that mainstream media was lying and that it was a Deep State PSYOP to construct a political narrative for Democrats. It was not. He also falsely accused contemporary Democrats as being the true members of the Ku Klux Klan who joined the rally. Not only have members of the alt-right pleaded guilty as to their role in the event, but it was also promoted by a plethora of far-right figures from Azzmador to the founder of The Daily Stormer. It is almost unfathomable to have to say this, but “Unite the Right” rally was in fact a political event of the political right.

No, Rep. Finchem, calls for a race war in Charlottesville were not a coordinated liberal operation—but rather the actions of your own political allies.

Mark Finchem also parrots far-right conspiracies on vaccines.Sure, Finchem got COVID-19 himself. And yes, his mother lost her decades long battle with cancer soon after contracting the virus. But on his official Twitter in July, he warned President Joe Biden to take his “tweet as Arizona’s statewide ‘no trespassing sign.’ You and your vaccine henchmen have been forewarned.” I am unsure what exactly he is threatening here, but I believe you can read between the lines.

Finchem’s supply of money also comes from the right-wing extremists. One of his leading campaign funders isDaniel Brophy, [libtard stockbroker stinktank] a Wyoming-based political megadonor and brother of former State Sen. Kate Brophy McGee of Phoenix. According to a local legal group,Sen. McGee herself once described her brother as having alt-right political views after he gave money to her political rival. When a woman who has proudly touted her anti-LGBTQ+ bonafides and was painted as a bygone example of the Arizona GOP by English newspaper The Guardian calls you alt-right, I am going to have to take her word for it.

Rep. Finchem also attended the premiere of a “documentary” called The Deep Rig about an alleged conspiracy in the 2020 election. The film featured Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan (who confirmed himself as “Anon” in the movie), former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, and other leaders of election conspiracies in Arizona. Finchem supported the film despite the fact that its director has a history of baseless conspiracies—including the dedication of an entire film to the argument that extraterrestrials were the cause of the Sep. 11 attacks on the Twin Towers. Just to be clear, they were not.

I do not want my possible Secretary of State being tied to any of this. And I am venturing a guess that you do not believe in alien terrorist theories either. Not to mention that supporting The Deep Rig alone is concerning for anyone attempting to run elections in Arizona. Yet, it gets worse still.

Trump’s re-election committee paid thousands of dollars to a business owned by Rep. Finchem as he launched efforts to overturn Arizona’s election results. Now, Finchem spends his time parroting election fraud claims on QAnon, far-right radio shows. AZ Mirror reported in April that Finchem had scheduled an appearance on “RedPill78,” a conspiracy channel on YouTube whose host—Zak Paine—has been repeatedly removed from the platform. He also appeared in a video with Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai—going as far as promoting it on his official campaign page. Dr. Shiva, while called as an expert witness before the State Senate, has repeatedly failed to understand state election procedures, been paid by partisan activists to make fraud claims, voiced anti-vaccine perspectives at schools, and dubiously claimed to have invented email. (He likely did not.)

In September, Finchem continued his anti-democratic campaign as he tried to request “all hard drive images of tabulation machines used in the 2020 General Election” (amidst multiple following grammar errors) from the Pima County government.As I type this, the home page of Finchem’s campaign website still claims that votes were reallocated in real time on national television during Nov. 3, 2020. That’s false. That’s a delusion. That did not happen.

Given his evident belief in the conspiracies of the far-right, of course Finchem was at the insurrection on Jan. 6 himself. Despite claiming that he never made it closer than 500 yards to the Capitol building, footage of the event clearly shows the politician in attendance himself. He also tweeted in praise of the insurrectionists. Plus, the prominent “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander identified Finchem as the starting point of the anti-democratic movement in Arizona.

Not only was he there, but he then spread more conspiracies after the fact. In his newsletter following the attack in D.C., he claimed (falsely) that facial recognition technology had identified masses of leftist activists in the crowd. He also accused Antifa of responsibility for violence at the Capitol building, despite having no evidence for such claims. Further, even in the face of proof of him attending the event,he has repeatedly threatened to sue anybody attempting to connect him to the events at the Capitol.

Given all of this, it is no surprise that Finchem was endorsed by Trump. In mid-September, the former President released a statement calling the state representative a “true warrior” with the courage to say what others will not. If that’s baseless conspiracy theories, it seems Trump is at least right about one thing. Finchem is now taking these baseless conspiracies on the road to stump for the former President too.

Concerning Political Priorities & Legislative History

However, even looking back at Finchem’s legislative actions and priorities should give Arizona voters reasons for pause. Let us look back at some of Finchem’s “greatest” legislative hits.

In late 2018, Finchem introduced HB 2002 to create an educator code of ethics. At first, a code of ethics does not sound so bad. That is likely to change once you learn that Finchem’s recommendations were a near word-for-word copy of those proposed by the “Stop K-12 Indoctrination” campaign of the David Horowitz Freedom Center—an openly far-right, anti-Muslim organization. They intended to silence any form of political statements by teachers. The campaign included fights against racial justice and equity trainings, and curriculum teaching students about the religion of Islam. Because nothing says anti-indoctrination like mandatory ethics pledges.

In support of the bill, Finchem continued to display a tenuous relationship with the truth. While he claimed tons of parents angrily contacted him about the issue, it turns out that simply was not the case. Instead, many considered the proposal of the bill to be retribution for the #RedForEd movement.

Finchem also introduced a bill in the 2016 legislative session that would give Arizona’s government the power to ignore executive orders, federal actions and Supreme Court rulings that Congress found to be unconstitutional. Finchem argued that Supreme Court rulings should not be called rulings—according to him, the decisions are not even worthy of being called case law. (I wonder if his University of Arizona professors in the law school would agree?) “The court can pass an opinion all day long,” he told Capital Media Servicesreporter Howard Fischer. “But until that opinion goes back to Congress and becomes an enactment, and is signed into law, a statute, by the president, it’s not operable.” The legality of circumventing the decisions of two of the three branches of federal government is suspect at best, and I mean at best.

Finchem also has a tortured history of land ownership arguments. Not only has he argued lower-case ‘r’ republican government cannot exist if a state owns less than 51% of its land (I am unsure if he understands the definition of republican government),he supported legislation that would force private property owners to receive approval from the state before selling their lands to the federal government. Rep. Finchem was also responsible for a bill which would direct Arizona’s attorney general to join a lawsuit to wrestle away control of federal lands to ‘fund education.’ This was despite significant criticism from organizations including the Arizona Wildlife Federation that the state could not afford to take ownership of the land. Not to mention that Arizona voters had also rejected a proposition seeking to do exactly this in 2012—so much for listening to the people, I guess.

The concerning political history manages to continue on further yet. In committee, Finchem voted no on a bill (2018’s SB1431) to create a memorial for Arizona veterans who committed suicide due to post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. It passed the Senate unanimously, and even the House after that. Finchem has also suggested President Obama facilitated jihad,claimed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to be an enemy of the Constitution for discussing gun issues following the Orlando nightclub shooting, and suggestedObama should move to a different country.

I am running out of words to spend on this topic, but it is not like Finchem’s stint in the Arizona Legislature has been a harmonious or productive one. And whether or not you agree with Finchem’s political affiliation, you must admit that his conspiracies and legislative history do not demonstrate his readiness for the next level of state politics.

A Danger as Secretary of State

Which then brings us to the main point of this article: the man who has done all of this is running for one of the highest offices in our state. The Arizona Secretary of State is tasked with a lot. According to the official government page about the office, this includes “serving as acting governor when the governor is absent from the state,” sitting “first in line to succeed the governor,” and to serve as the“Chief Election Officer for the State.”

I cannot overstate the importance of every single one of those tasks.

Finchem’s campaign website claims he has the “integrity we can trust.”I vehemently disagree. And I hope you do too, especially come election time. Someone like Mark Finchem should not have this much power in our state. Someone who attacks teachers and votes against Arizona veterans. Someone who does not respect Supreme Court decisions. Someone pushing conspiracies and celebrating literal insurrection.

Finchem’s campaign website also tells us that “With so much at stake, we need leaders who serve a higher authority and who don’t seek personal gain or political advancement.” Which is, after reading all of this, exactly why we cannot elect Mark Finchem. There are three other Republicans and two Democrats in the race so far, and they all have to be less damaging for our beautiful state.

===

no lnx pix

[https://www.azmirror.com/2021/08/31/dem-lawmaker-asks-court-to-reject-jan-6-defamation-case-from-gosar-finchem-kern/](===

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/08/31/dem-lawmaker-asks-court-to-reject-jan-6-defamation-case-from-gosar-finchem-kern/

Democratic%20Rep.%20Charlene%20Fernandez%20is%20asking%20a%20court%20to%20dismiss%20a%20defamation%20case%20brought%20against%20her%20by%20two%20Republican%20state%20legislators%20and%20a%20GOP%20congressman%20because%20statements%20Fernandez%20made%20to%20the%20FBI%20about%20the%20two%20GOP%20legislators%20are%20privileged.

The%20case%20stems%20from%20a%20letter%20sent%20by%20Fernandez%20and%20other%20Democratic%20lawmakers%20asking%20the%20FBI%20to%20investigate%20Rep.%20Mark%20Finchem,%20R-Oro%20Valley,%20former%20state%20Rep.%20Anthony%20Kern,%20R-Glendale,%20and%20GOP%20Congressman%20Paul%20Gosar’s%20connections%20to%20the%20deadly%20Jan.%206%20insurrection%20in%20Washington,%20D.C.

In%20February,%20the%20trio%20filed%20a%20lawsuit%20against%20Fernandez,%20D-Yuma,%20accusing%20her%20of%20defaming%20them%20by%20making%20disparaging%20remarks,%20connecting%20them%20to%20the%20violence%20of%20Jan.%206%20and%20conspiring%20against%20them.%20The%20trio%20have%20not%20brought%20a%20suit%20against%20any%20of%20the%2043%20other%20Democratic%20legislators%20who%20also%20signed%20the%20letter.

the%20lawsuit%20was%20stalled%20for%20months%20because%20Fernandez%20was%20immune%20from%20being%20served%20while%20the%20legislature’s%20annual%20session%20was%20taking%20place.%20But%20when%20the%20session%20ended,%20Fernandez%20waived%20service%20and%20both%20sides%20agreed%20to%20a%2060-day%20response%20period%20which%20started%20at%20the%20end%20of%20the%20session%20on%20June%2030.

“Contrary%20to%20all%20of%20the%20rhetoric…%20this%20is%20not%20a%20lawsuit%20about%20alleged%20fraud%20in%20the%202020%20election,%20the%20purported%20suppression%20of%20conservative%20viewpoints%20by%20social%20media%20companies%20or%20issues%20of%20border%20security,”%20Fernandez’s%20attorney,%20David%20Bodney,%20wrote%20in%20the%20motion%20to%20dismiss%20the%20lawsuit.%20“Rather,%20this%20lawsuit%20is%20about%20whether%20state%20legislators%20–%20or,%20indeed,%20any%20Arizonan%20–%20may%20petition%20federal%20authorities%20to%20investigate%20potential%20crimes%20of%20the%20utmost%20seriousness%20without%20being%20dragged%20into%20court%20to%20face%20frivolous%20and%20retaliatory%20defamation%20litigation.”

%28Bodney%20represents%20the%20Arizona%20Mirror%20on%20matters%20relating%20to%20public%20records%20and%20other%20First%20Amendment%20issues.%29

Bodney%20argued%20that%20the%20court%20should%20grant%20the%20motion%20to%20dismiss%20in%20part%20because%20the%20Democratic%20lawmakers%20were%20communicating%20with%20law%20enforcement%20entities.%20Arizona%20case%20law%20states%20that%20such%20communication%20is%20privileged%20and%20a%20person%20cannot%20be%20sued%20for%20making%20a%20report%20to%20law%20enforcement.

“Thus,%20the%20relevant%20question%20is%20whether%20the%20Criminal%20Referral%20constitutes%20a%20formal%20or%20informal%20complaint%20to%20a%20prosecutor%20or%20law%20enforcement,”%20Bodney%20says.%20“Unquestionably,%20it%20is,%20as%20its%20name%20makes%20clear.”

Bodney%20also%20argues%20that%20the%20three%20GOP%20officials%20have%20failed%20to%20show%20that%20Fernandez%20has%20demonstrated%20“actual%20malice”%20—%20that%20she%20knew%20or%20had%20the%20“high%20probability”%20that%20she%20knew%20the%20statements%20she%20was%20making%20were%20false%20or%20defamatory.

In%20their%20lawsuit%20against%20Fernandez,%20Finchem,%20Kern%20and%20Gosar%20pointed%20to%20public%20statements%20they%20made%20denouncing%20the%20violence%20of%20Jan.%206%20as%20evidence%20that%20Fernandez%20acted%20with%20“actual%20malice.”

“The%20fact%20that%20a%20public%20official%20has%20made%20self-serving%20denials%20of%20the%20conduct%20for%20which%20he%20is%20being%20criticized%20is%20insufficient%20to%20show%20actual%20malice%20as%20a%20matter%20of%20law,”%20Bodney%20argued.

Bodney%20also%20suggested%20that%20the%20initial%20lawsuit%20by%20Finchem%20and%20Kern%20—%20Gosar%20was%20added%20as%20a%20plaintiff%20several%20months%20later%20—%20did%20little%20to%20distance%20themselves%20from%20the%20violence%20of%20Jan.%206%20as%20well.

“It%20is%20not%20reckless%20disregard%20for%20the%20truth,%20by%20any%20definition,%20to%20assert%20that%20a%20man%20who%20returned%20to%20the%20scene%20of%20an%20ongoing%20riot%20should%20be%20investigated%20for%20his%20potential%20involvement%20in%20encouraging%20and%20supporting%20the%20rioters,”%20Bodney%20said.

Footage%20reviewed%20by%20the%20Arizona%20Mirror%20has%20shown%20that%20Kern%20was%20closer%20to%20the%20Capitol%20than%20he%20said%20he%20was,%20and%20he%20was%20recorded%20on%20the%20Capitol%20grounds%20while%20violent%20clashes%20with%20police%20were%20still%20ongoing.

Finchem,%20too,%20has%20been%20found%20to%20have%20been%20closer%20to%20the%20Capitol%20on%20that%20day%20than%20he%20claimed.

Finchem%20has%20insisted%20that%20he%20never%20got%20within%20500%20yards%20of%20the%20Capitol%20building,%20but%20Getty%20footage%20of%20the%20failed%20attempt%20to%20stop%20Congress%20from%20certifying%20Joe%20Biden’s%20election%20that%20was%20discovered%20by%20activists%20on%20Twitter%20shows%20Finchem%20walking%20directly%20in%20front%20of%20the%20east%20steps%20at%20the%20Capitol%20after%20pro-Trump%20rioters%20had%20already%20broken%20through%20a%20series%20of%20barricades%20and%20police%20lines,%20and%20then%20smashed%20their%20way%20into%20the%20Capitol%20building.

Fernandez%20is%20seeking%20attorney%20fees%20from%20Finchem,%20Kern%20and%20Gosar.

This%20isn’t%20the%20first%20time%20Finchem%20has%20gone%20after%20his%20political%20rivals.

Earlier%20this%20year%20Finchem%20sent%20a%20cease%20and%20desist%20letter%20to%20the%20group%20who%20was%20seeking%20to%20recall%20him%20from%20office.%20Finchem%20said%20if%20they%20did%20not%20destroy%20all%20their%20campaign%20related%20material,%20which%20focused%20on%20Finchem’s%20connections%20to%20Jan.%206,%20he%20would%20sue%20them%20for%20defamation.

One%20point%20of%20contention%20for%20Finchem%20in%20the%20cease%20and%20desist%20letter%20is%20his%20connection%20to%20the%20extremist%20Oath%20Keepers%20organization%20that%20the%20recall%20organizers%20pointed%20out.

Finchem%20has%20long%20been%20tied%20to%20the%20organization,%20but%20in%20his%20cease%20and%20desist%20his%20attorney%20claimed%20that%20the%20Oath%20Keepers%20is%20a%20“non-partisan”%20group%20and%20called%20allegations%20that%20it%20is%20anti-government%20to%20be%20“spurious%20claims.”%20The%20letter%20also%20calls%20the%20Southern%20Poverty%20Law%20Center’s%20website%20“hate-filled”

The%20FBI%20describes%20the%20Oath%20Keepers%20as%20a%20“loosely%20organized%20collection%20of%20militia%20who%20believe%20that%20the%20federal%20government%20have%20been%20coopted%20by%20a%20shadowy%20conspiracy%20that%20is%20trying%20to%20strip%20American%20citizens%20of%20their%20rights.”

Sixteen%20Oath%20Keepers%20have%20been%20indicted%20thus%20far%20in%20a%20case%20that%20claims%20they%20coordinated%20to%20conspire%20to%20breach%20the%20U.S.%20Capitol%20on%20Jan.%206,%20with%20prosecutors%20saying%20that%20more%20could%20be%20prosecuted%20in%20the%20future.

Finchem’s%20attorney,%20Alexander%20Kolodin,%20previously%20represented%20Cyber%20Ninjas,%20the%20Florida-based%20company%20conducting%20the%20Arizona%20Senate’s%20“audit.”

===)

Democratic Rep. Charlene Fernandez is asking a court to dismiss a defamation case brought against her by two Republican state legislators and a GOP congressman because statements Fernandez made to the FBI about the two GOP legislators are privileged.

The case stems from a letter sent by Fernandez and other Democratic lawmakers asking the FBI to investigate Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, former stateRep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, and GOP Congressman Paul Gosar’s connections to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C.

In February, the trio filed a lawsuit against Fernandez, D-Yuma, accusing her of defaming them by making disparaging remarks, connecting them to the violence of Jan. 6 and conspiring against them. The trio have not brought a suit against any of the 43 other Democratic legislators who also signed the letter.

the lawsuit was stalled for months because Fernandez was immune from being served while the legislature’s annual session was taking place. But when the session ended, Fernandez waived service and both sides agreed to a 60-day response period which started at the end of the session on June 30.

“Contrary to all of the rhetoric… this is not a lawsuit about alleged fraud in the 2020 election, the purported suppression of conservative viewpoints by social media companies or issues of border security,” Fernandez’s attorney, David Bodney, wrote in the motion to dismiss the lawsuit. “Rather, this lawsuit is about whether state legislators – or, indeed, any Arizonan – may petition federal authorities to investigate potential crimes of the utmost seriousness without being dragged into court to face frivolous and retaliatory defamation litigation.”

(Bodney represents the Arizona Mirror on matters relating to public records and other First Amendment issues.)

Bodney argued that the court should grant the motion to dismiss in part because the Democratic lawmakers were communicating with law enforcement entities. Arizona case law states that such communication is privileged and a person cannot be sued for making a report to law enforcement.

“Thus, the relevant question is whether the Criminal Referral constitutes a formal or informal complaint to a prosecutor or law enforcement,” Bodney says. “Unquestionably, it is, as its name makes clear.”

Bodney also argues that the three GOP officials have failed to show that Fernandez has demonstrated “actual malice” — that she knew or had the “high probability” that she knew the statements she was making were false or defamatory.

In their lawsuit against Fernandez, Finchem, Kern and Gosarpointed to public statements they made denouncing the violence of Jan. 6 as evidence that Fernandez acted with “actual malice.”

“The fact that a public official has made self-serving denials of the conduct for which he is being criticized is insufficient to show actual malice as a matter of law,” Bodney argued.

Bodney also suggested that the initial lawsuit by Finchem and Kern — Gosar was added as a plaintiff several months later — did little to distance themselves from the violence of Jan. 6 as well.

“It is not reckless disregard for the truth, by any definition, to assert that a man who returned to the scene of an ongoing riot should be investigated for his potential involvement in encouraging and supporting the rioters,” Bodney said.

Footage reviewed by the Arizona Mirror has shown that Kern was closer to the Capitol than he said he was, and he was recorded on the Capitol grounds while violent clashes with police were still ongoing.

Finchem, too, has been found to have been closer to the Capitol on that day than he claimed.

Finchem has insisted that he never got within 500 yards of the Capitol building, but Getty footage of the failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election that was discovered by activists on Twitter shows Finchem walking directly in front of the east steps at the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters had already broken through a series of barricades and police lines, and then smashed their way into the Capitol building.

Fernandez is seeking attorney fees from Finchem, Kern and Gosar.

This isn’t the first time Finchem has gone after his political rivals.

Earlier this year Finchem sent a cease and desist letter to the group who was seeking to recall him from office. Finchem said if they did not destroy all their campaign related material, which focused on Finchem’s connections to Jan. 6, he would sue them for defamation.

One point of contention for Finchem in the cease and desist letter is his connection to the extremist Oath Keepers organization that the recall organizers pointed out.

Finchem has long been tied to the organization, but in his cease and desist his attorney claimed that the Oath Keepers is a “non-partisan” group and called allegations that it is anti-government to be “spurious claims.” The letter also calls the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website “hate-filled”

The FBI describes the Oath Keepers as a “loosely organized collection of militia who believe that the federal government have been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.”

Sixteen Oath Keepers have been indicted thus far in a case that claims they coordinated to conspire to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, with prosecutors saying that more could be prosecuted in the future.

Finchem’s attorney, Alexander Kolodin, previously represented Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company conducting the Arizona Senate’s “audit.”

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories**/2021/6**/9/2034150/-Defense-fund-started-for-Arizona-Jan-6-lawmakers-while-Pillow-guy-s-movie-prompts-a-wider-audit

as the traitors stormed the Capitol steps on Jan. 6, crashing through windows and doors, Rep. Paul Gosar stood at the mic on the House floor. An Arizona Republican infamous for the political ads his siblings make for his opponents, and too many other shitty things to list (like boycotting the Pope but standing with militias), Gosar was objecting to the Arizona vote. A gelatinous presence, one Ted Cruz, the required Senate vote, hovered lizardlike next to Gosar. Then shit got real.

Gosar’s wet dream had come true: he’s on stage blocking certification while Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and other white supremacists he had found common ground with for years occupied the US Capitol, pledging to stop an election and remove some heads.

...outside on the Capitol steps Arizona State Senator Mark Finchem tweeted a photo of the insurrection with the caption, “What happens when the People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud.”Former Arizona State Senator Anthony Kern, who lost his race in November, was also there. The three Arizona lawmakers, Gosar, Finchem, and Kern, are the beneficiaries of a new dark money defense fund,and goobers nationwide are ponying up.

A dark money nonprofit established by an Arizona Republican donor to “fight back” against alleged “malicious, defamatory and fallacious” assertions involving three Republican lawmakers and their ties to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has received significant, but undisclosed, support from small-dollar donors, its director said.

It’s no surprise the three Arizona Republicans are concerned about potential legal costs, since Gosar, in particular, was identified as one of the architects of the Jan. 6 riot by Ali Alexander, the guy who did the planning. Both Finchem and Kern have been featured in news stories about their QAnon activities, their role in the Stop the Steal movement, and their presence at the Jan. 6 riot. Silly me, but it sounds like establishing a defense fund suggests they know they are in legal peril.

After Jan. 6

Paul Gosar left the insurrection to headline a Feb. 26 white nationalist conference in Florida. The meeting’s organizer, Nick Fuentes, called Jan. 6 “awesome” and urged Gosar to protect the nation’s “white demographic core.” You can believe Gosar’s siblings: that’s about the only thing he’s interested in.

Loser Anthony Kern returned to Arizona and was hired as a ballot counter at the audit—until, that is, the media pointed him out and the obviously compromised trumper was dismissed because of “optics.”

Finchem remains in the State Senate, where he has declared his candidacy for Secretary of State. That’s right, the man who says the Arizona vote was stolen from trump would be in chargeof elections.

Apparently the current clusterf*ck of an audit in Phoenix is not enough for Finchem. Based on an online movie produced by the pillow asshole, Finchem is now demanding that the audit expand beyond Maricopa County to include Apache, Pima, Pinal, and Yuma counties.

In an email to supporters of his campaign for secretary of state, Rep. Mark Finchem claimed that Lindell’s recent internet video provided enough “probable cause” to “begin an inquiry” into ballot images from multiple counties across the state.

Because Lindell’s been right about everything so far, eh? Here’s a two-minute scene from the movie that Finchem called a “revelation,” in that it proved the Chinese switched trump votes to Biden. See, the anonymous hacker lists numbers! Lindell’s Deep Throat copied some publicly available information, added a lot of 1’s and 0’s to make it look computery, built an Excel spreadsheet with “China” listed a lot, and claims it to be what it is not. ...[ital sat]

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BASICALLY SHEILD FROM ACCOUNTABILITY FOR LIES/CRIMES/TREASON?

http://web.archive.org/web/20220113191343/https://fightback.network/

will not load 8 22 wayback

Welcome to Guardian Defense Fund

The Guardian Defense Fund, Inc. is organized to promote social welfare within the meaning of section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Our organization will be involved in the following:

Developing and advocating for legislation, regulations, and government programs to improve and protect election integrity and freedom of speech both locally and nationally.

Conducting research and publicizing the positions of elected officials concerning these issues.

Undertaking legal actions to protect and defend those advocating for election integrity and freedom of speech both locally and nationally.

Any and all activities permitted by law and consistent with the provisions of section 501 (c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.

*** The Guardian Defense Fund is an Arizona Not-For-Profit Corporation that isin the process of applying for 501(c)(4) status from the IRS.

2021 Initial Project

The first project that the Guardian Defense Fund will undertake is litigation to fight back against the weaponization of the “free press” and political process by holding Arizona Democrat Legislators, news media, and social media accountable for advancing malicious, defamatory and fallacious allegations that Representative Mark Finchem, Electoral College Elector Anthony Kern, Congressman Paul Gosar, and others engaged in criminal activities on January 6, 2020 at the United States Capitol.

In the unlikely event that any criminal investigation or charges are brought as a result of these malicious and defamatory allegations, the Fund will underwrite the defense of those charges.The Fund will also underwrite the defense of Representative Finchem against an equally malicious, defamatory and fallacious ethics complaint filed against him by certain Arizona Democrat Legislators.

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rww 12 21

constitutional Sheriff’ Richard Mack Endorses Mark Finchem, Oath Keeper, QAnon Promoter, and Stop the Steal Activist, for Arizona Secretary of State

###

arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem announced last week that he has been endorsed by ‘Constitutional sheriff’ Richard Mack. Finchem is a state representative, promoter of QAnon and stolen election conspiracy theories, and a member of the Oath Keepers militia group who was present at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He was previously endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Mack, a former Oath Keepers board member and a supporter of the Bundy family’s armed standoff with federal officials, founded the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which teaches law enforcement officials that “the power of the sheriff even supersedes the powers of the president.” He urges county sheriffs to resist “tyranny” from state and federal governments; during the COVID-19 pandemic, he has told sheriffs to refuse to enforce state public health measures like mask requirements. A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism warned that CSPOA’s trainings spread anti-government extremism among law enforcement officers.

Right Wing Watch reported this year that Mack is expanding the CSPOA by having county governments as well as individual law enforcement officers join the organization.

Finchem’s website includes a link to a recent appearance on the far-right One America News network in which he talked about the bogus “audit” of Maricopa County votes and claimed, “When we keep digging, we keep uncovering things that are these anomalies which—they turn into evidence, which become proof, which we refer to the attorney general’s office.”

In January, Finchem described the violence at the Capitol as “What happens when the People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud.” A week after the Capitol insurrection, Finchem claimed that social media deplatforming is “something very similar” to what German Nazis, Pol Pot, and Mao did, warning, “When you silence speech, and you silence thought, the next step is eliminating people.”

Shortly before this year’s elections in Virginia, Finchem spoke ata campaign rally for Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin.

In 2019, the Phoenix New Times described Finchem as a “fringe lawmaker” who described the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville as “a PSYOP to impugn those of us who stand for the rule of law and civil rights.” During the Obama administration, Finchem claimed that the president was “taking every opportunity to install his ideological, totalitarian dictatorship.”

Arizona’s current secretary of state, Democrat Katie Hobbs, has received death threats and harassment from Trump supporters. She and other election officials targeted by Trump and his allies have told CNN they live in fear of retaliation for not backing Trump’s stolen-election claims. Hobbs is running for governor.

The Associated Press has reported that two other Arizona state legislators running to be the GOP nominee for secretary of state have proposed new restrictions on voting and a bill allowing state legislators to disregard voters and choose their own Electoral College electors.

Some right-wing donors aligned with Trump are focusing on electing Trump allies to oversee future elections. Trump has also endorsed secretary of state candidates in Michigan and Georgia and a proponent of debunked stolen election claims for Michigan attorney general...Mark Finchem Richard Mack Arizona audit Election 2020 Election 2022 CSPOA Republican Party

===

cows

...--- Forwarded message ---

From: s Bennett ... cows Letter re: Anthony Bosworth -

To:TVOI News@gmruJ.m>, "WilJlgll.D.@gmruJ.m"

Mike,

Feel free to distribute to trusted sources with good intentions and good hearts.

Scott

From: cows PublicRelations@diplomats com

To: l!UDY.RliY.2R@out1ook com

Subject: COWS Letter re: Anthony Bosworth

Date: Fri, 4 Mar 201608:02:27 +0100

To whom It may concern,

Apr 1, 2016, 1:40 PM

We're contacting you regarding a very regrettable episode of your podcast. We learned of a guest you recently interviewed and were shocked and appalled by the slanderous, false

statements about a delegate we recently commissioned to liaison with us. That delegate is Anthony Bosworth.

The Coalition of Western States (COWS) has worked tirelessly to seek Intervention on behalf of the Hammonds to avoid them returning to prison. Furthermore, since the Malheur

Wildlife Refuge takeover on January 2nd, we have worked diligently with legislators, citizens, and community leaders, and corresponded with the FBI to seek a peaceful resolution

so that we could preserve life, bring an end to that chapter, and prepare for the battlefield of the courts, the legislatures, and the court of public opinion.

Anthony Bosworth was Instrumental in facilitating the safe passage of all who wished to leave the Refuge after Lavoy Finlcum was killed. At our request, he facilitated discussions

between FBI negotiators, legislators within COWS, and patriots at the Refuge.

The notion that he was part of an elaborate operation to undermine and divide the patriots by the federal government, or anyone else, is appalling.

We consider Anthony Bosworth to be an asset to the Coalition of Western States who is a patriot of the highest caliber, and to be candid,we're very suspicious of the motives of the

individual you had on as your guest who insinuated and accused Mr. Bosworth of the most heinous betrayal of his fellow countrymen.

Mr. Bosworth continues to hold our trust and we hold him in the highest esteem. Our hope Is that you will make the proper corrections to your investigative story in which he was

so maliciously maligned. He is highly regarded patriot by us, and one who has repeatedly earned and reaffirmed our confidence.

I hope that we can correct this unfortunate episode and put it behind us so that we all together can move forward in the case of freedom and liberty.

Very Sincerely,

Rep. Matt Shea {WA)

Chairman

And the following COWS Board of Directors:

Lyle Rapacki, Ph.D. (AZ)

Vice Chairman

Kris Anne Hall

Legal Advisor

Rep. Mark Finchem (AZ)

Arizona Coordinator

Rep. Heather Scott (ID)

Idaho Coordinator

Rep. Michele Fiore (NV)

Nevada Coordinator

Sup. Robert Corbell (AZ)

County Elected Coordinator

Richard Mack (CSPOA)

Peace Officer Coordinator

Steve McLaughlin (LWWA) [sez he quit?]

===

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/rep-mark-finchem-was-arizona-coordinator-for-pro-militia-group-11498687

0ct 2020

state Representative Mark Finchem served as "Arizona Coordinator" for the Coalition of Western States, a group that supported the infamous armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016.

He's also recently communicated with individuals who were involved with the group, new emails show.

The Coalition of Western States (COWS) describes itself as a group of elected legislators and "grass roots leaders" in the Western United States "dedicated to stopping federal overreach" and the "bureaucratic terrorism" of the Bureau of Land Management, according to a December 2015 news release from the organization. The group publicly backed the Hammond family of Oregon ranchers, whosedispute with the federal government over public land management inspired the armed militia occupation of the Oregon wildlife refuge. Some members of COWS met with the militia members and fed them information.

The 2015 news release mentions Finchem, a Republican from Oro Valley, as an "Arizona Coordinator" alongside other controversial far-right politicians from Western states, like Idaho State Representative Heather Scott and Washington State Representative Matt Shea. In 2019, investigators hired by the Washington House of Representatives concluded that Shea had engaged in "domestic terrorism" during his involvement in the Oregon militia stand-off and "promoted" three "armed conflicts of political violence against the United States

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/gab/mark-finchem-frequently-uses-gab-fundraising-and-campaign-help

===

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/25/fann-townsend-subpoenas-arizona-trump/

no lnx Democracy Dies in Darkness

Arizona fake-electors subpoenas show breadth of DOJ Jan. 6 probe

Requests for information from two state lawmakers were released under a state public records law

By Devlin Barrett and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

July 25, 2022

Arizona state Sen. Kelly Townsend, pictured in 2019, and state Senate President Karen Fann received subpoenas seeking communications “relating to any effort, plan, or attempt to serve as an Elector” for Donald Trump after the 2020 election. (Bob Christie/AP)[

Grand jury subpoenas issued last month to two Arizona state lawmakers show the breadth of the criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington into efforts by supporters of Donald Trump to use “false electors” to try to undo Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Copies of two subpoenas issued to Republican state senators from Arizona were released Monday via a public-records request, confirming what has been previously reported about the June demands for records related “to the signing or mailing of any document purporting to be a Certificate certifying Elector votes in favor of Donald J. Trump and/or Michael R. Pence.”

The subpoenas issued to Karen Fann, president of the Arizona Senate, and Sen. Kelly Townsend also seek communications “relating to any effort, plan, or attempt to serve as an Elector” in favor of the then-president and then-vice president.

A subpoena is not an accusation but rather a demand for information that investigators believe may help them solve a crime. The documents released Monday cast a wide net for any communications that Fann and Townsend may have had with any member of the executive or legislative branch of the federal government; any representative or agent of Trump or his campaign; or Trump boosters Jenna Ellis, Bernard Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, James Troupis, Joe DiGenova, John Eastman, Joshua Findlay, Justin Clark, Kenneth Chesebro, Mike Roman or Victoria Toensing.

[Trump didn't want to call for Jan. 6 prosecutions, newly released video shows

The subpoenas are just one part of a significant escalation and expansion of the Justice Department’s criminal probe of the events of and leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the election results. Around the same time in mid-June, federal agents fanned out in multiple states to serve subpoenas, execute search warrants and interview potential witnesses as part of the investigation into the electors scheme.

Separately, a grand jury in Washington examining Jan. 6 heard testimony Friday from Marc Short, the former chief of staff to Pence, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Short’s grand jury appearance was first reported by ABC News. He testified on the same day that a jury in the federal courthouse convicted longtime Trump confidant Stephen K. Bannon of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide information to the U.S. House committee investigating Jan. 6.

In the weeks after the 2020 election, Fann huddled with Arizona state lawmakers and Maricopa County officials to try to broker a deal to conduct a joint audit by an accredited firm of the county’s election results.

On Dec. 1, 2020, she attended a meeting with Giuliani and Ellis, both of whom worked as attorneys for Trump, as well as Kerik, state Republican lawmakers and retired Col. Phil Waldron. Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) also attended the meeting and later said Giuliani made various claims about election fraud that the former New York mayor could not back up.

“My recollection, he said, ‘We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence,’ ” Bowers told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

In the end, the GOP Senate that Fann presided over launched its own review of 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County for the presidential and U.S. Senate race, using a Florida-based firm with no experience in auditing elections. The review affirmed Biden’s win.

More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

In late 2020, Townsend, as a state representative, sought to prevent the certification of Arizona’s electoral votes. On Dec. 31, she wrote a letter to Pence asking the vice president “to refrain from accepting the Biden electors” until state lawmakers could adequately investigate claims of voter fraud. It is unclear if Pence received the letter.

“We believe it is impossible to conclusively declare a winner in Arizona and pray that you would refrain from counting the electoral votes from our state, and consider the alternate slate should we be able to establish validity to the various claims of election fraud on such a scale that would change the outcome,” said the letter, obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight.

The subpoenas to Fann and Townsend seek all communications or documents exchanged with those who served as Arizona’s alternate electors, as well as communications with state Rep. Mark Finchem, a vocal “Stop the Steal” proponent now vying for the Republican nomination for secretary of state.

Finchem helped organize a Nov. 30, 2020, meeting in downtown Phoenix attended by Giuliani, Ellis, GOP congressmen, state lawmakers and others, where speakers claimed widespread fraud in the election. Finchem was in Washington on Jan. 6. The House committee probing the events of that day issued a subpoena to him in February seeking information about his activities after the election, including comments he made about delivering “an evidence book and letter to Vice President Pence showing key evidence of fraud” in the election “and asking him to consider postponing the award of electors.”

The subpoenas to Fann and Townsend also seek any communications they had with a host of Arizona GOP figures who either helped assemble a list of Trump-backing electors or were on a list of such electors.

[In Georgia Trump probe, DA is blocked from investigating GOP lawmaker

Townsend has previously said that as chair of the elections committee, she tried to conduct an investigation because legislators “have plenary authority and responsibility to send the correct slate, and because it was in question, we wanted to have an alternate slate in case fraud was discovered and found.”

On Monday, she said she had one or two phone calls with Giuliani in December 2020 but no longer has the phone on which those calls were made. She said she has described the nature of the calls to the FBI.

“They asked me not to talk about it because of the investigation,” Townsend told The Washington Post in an interview. She said it was her impression that FBI agents were seeking information about one of Trump’s attorneys.

The subpoenas also seek a list of all email accounts, social media accounts and telephone numbers used by Fann and Townsend between October 2020 and now.

The subpoenas are signed by Thomas Windom, a federal prosecutor who has been tasked with investigating the false-electors scheme.

A spokesperson for Fann, who is not seeking reelection when her term expires in January, has said she is cooperating with the investigation. The spokesperson said they do not expect Fann to have to testify in person to the grand jury, which is located in Washington.

Some within Trump’s orbit, particularly Eastman, a law professor, had advocated offering new slates of “Trump electors” to challenge the electors in key states, such as Arizona, that Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020. The scheme failed in part because even GOP-controlled state legislatures did not endorse the effort.

Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.

The Jan. 6 insurrection

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has held a series of high-profile hearings throughout the summer: Find Day 8′s highlights and analysis.

Congressional hearings: The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol has conducted a series of hearings to share its findings with the U.S. public. The eighth hearing focused on Trump’s inaction on Jan. 6. Here’s a guide to the biggest moments so far.

Will there be charges? The committee could make criminal referrals of former president Donald Trump over his role in the attack, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in an interview.

What we know about what Trump did on Jan. 6: New details emerged when Hutchinson testified before the committee and shared what she saw and heard on Jan. 6.

The riot: On Jan. 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. Five people died on that day or in the immediate aftermath, and 140 police officers were assaulted.

Inside the siege: During the rampage, rioters came perilously close to penetrating the inner sanctums of the building while lawmakers were still there, including former vice president Mike Pence. The Washington Post examined text messages, photos and videos to create a video timeline of what happened on Jan. 6.

alec energy bills ref chris?

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-battle-for-solar-energy-in-the-countrys-sunniest-state

The Battle for Solar Energy in the Country’s Sunniest State

By Carolyn Kormann

October 24, 2018

Despite the rapid decline in the cost of solar-energy technology and battery storage, Arizona gets only six per cent of its electricity from solar.

In late September, the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank that receives donations from fossil-fuel companies, published a blog post titled “California Billionaire’s Renewable Energy Initiative Makes Arizona Ballot.” The billionaire in question was Tom Steyer, whose year-long effort to pass Proposition 127, an amendment to Arizona’s constitution that would require power companies togenerate fifty per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030,has faced aggressive opposition from the state’s largest utility, Arizona Public Service, or A.P.S.

The blog post lamented a failed lawsuit filed by Arizonans for Affordable Energy, a political-action committee funded by A.P.S.’s parent company, to keep Prop 127 off the ballot,and quoted several opponents who believed the measure, now up for a vote in November, would be a costly mistake.

“Prop 127 would tie Arizona’s future to technologies that do not deliver baseload electricity,” Mark Finchem, a Republican state representative, said, “and are arguably worse for the environment as a whole than the dependable technologies we already have.” The photograph accompanying the post depicted a wind-turbine farm, and, in the foreground, a dead bald eagle.

Arizona is the sunniest state in the country, with more than three hundred bluebird days per year. It is also projected to endure an additional month of hundred-degree days in the coming decades owing to climate change. Yet, despite the rapid decline in the cost of solar-energy technology and battery storage—to the point that, as an A.P.S. director told me, it now frequently outbids fossil fuels, even natural gas—in 2017, Arizona generated only six per cent of its electricity from solar, according to the ballot initiative’s advocates. The state currently requires utilities to generate eight per cent of their power from sources like solar and wind, scaling up to fifteen per cent by 2025. Natural gas, the largest source of Arizona’s net electricity generation, is imported from out of state. “Our most abundant resource in Arizona is our sunshine,” D. J. Quinlan, a spokesman for Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona, the Phoenix-based political-action committee that Steyer is funding, said. “We need a nationwide transition to renewables. One of the first places we should be doing it is where it’s most efficient and cost-effective, and that’s here.”

Carolyn Kormann is a staff writer at The New Yorker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Finchem

mark W. Finchem^[1] is an American far-right politician^[2][3] serving as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 11 since January 5, 2015. He is the Arizona Coordinator for the Coalition of Western States, an organization that opposes the activities of the Bureau of Land Management and supported the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.^[4]

Finchem is a member of the militia group Oath Keepers and has espoused the QAnon conspiracy theory. He is a candidate in the 2022 race to become Secretary of State of Arizona.^[2][5]

Early life

Finchen was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Kalamazoo.^[1]

Career

After graduating high school, he worked as a firefighter and police officer in Kalamazoo, retiring in 1999.^[6] He lived in Delton, Michigan, where he also worked as a rancher.^[1] He then moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he worked for the business and financial software company Intuit before becoming a real estate broker.^[1]

Arizona House of Representatives

In 2016, Finchem introduced legislation that would prohibit Arizona from implementing presidential executive orders, directives issued by federal agencies and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.^[2] In 2019 he introduced a bill to create a code of ethics for teachers which consisted primarily of text from a report published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.^[2] He also sponsored in 2019 a bill that would seek to transfer management of federal lands in Arizona to the state government.^[7]

As of 2021, Finchem is a member of the House of Representatives' committees on the Judiciary, on Military Affairs & Public Safety, and on Natural Resources, Energy & Water.^[1]

Coalition of Western States

As of 2016, Finchem was Arizona Coordinator of the Coalition of Western States (COWS), a group founded by Washington state representative Matt Shea in 2014 to support Cliven Bundy and his family in their confrontation with law enforcement, which also supported the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.^[4] Mark Pitcavage of theAnti-Defamation Leaguedescribed COWS as motivated by "anti-government extremism and anti-public lands extremism", and said that Finchem's membership indicated he shared extremist views.^[4]

Response to the 2020 presidential election

Following the 2020 United States presidential election, Finchem supported the "Stop the Steal" movement which falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the election nationally and in Arizona.^[8]

In 2021, Finchem shared on social media a "report" falsely claiming to have uncovered tens of thousands of missing or lost votes, and tens of thousands of votes fraudulently cast, in Maricopa County, Arizona. The report was based on extrapolations from a non-random sample of a much smaller number of voters and was rejected by county elections officials and political scientists.^[9]

Finchem then called for the Arizona legislature to appoint presidential electors of its own choosing.^[10]

It was later revealed that a business affiliated with Finchem, Mrk Finchem PLLC [sic], received $6,037 from the Trump reelection campaign. Finchem said the payment was for security costs related to his meeting with Rudy Giuliani.^[10]

2021 U.S. Capitol attack

Main article: 2021 United States Capitol attack

Finchem traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in the January 6, 2021, protest that was followed by an attack on the U.S. Capitol. He said there was "substantial evidence that this election was a fraud" and tweeted photographs of protestors massed on the steps of the Capitol building.^[8] Finchem later claimed that leftists had instigated the violence.^[11]

A coalition of community organizations subsequently called for theexpulsionof Finchem and six other Arizona Republican lawmakers who advocated overturning the 2020 election.^[8][12] In response to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) briefing that said antifa groups were not involved in the attack on the Capitol, Finchem said he did not "trust a word that comes out of the FBI's mouth".^[13]

2022 Secretary of State campaign

In March 2021, Finchem announced he would run for Secretary of State of Arizona in the 2022 election.^[14]He received Donald Trump's endorsement in September 2021.^[15]

Political views

In 2017, Finchem described the white supremacist Unite the Right rally as a "deep state psyop" carried out by Democrats.^[2]In 2013, Finchem argued that Barack Obama was seeking to establish a "totalitarian dictatorship."^[2]

Elections

2014

Finchem finished second in the Republican primary behind Vince Leach and ahead of Jo Grant.

Finchem and Leach ran successfully in the general election. Finchem came in first with 36,732 votes, ahead of Leach and Democratic challenger Holly Lyon.^[16]

2016

Finchem and Leach defeated Democrats Corin Hammond and Barry Mccain (write-in candidate) in the general election.^[17]

References

...

===

2/25/22

so much for freedom of mkt choice:

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts**/2022/02**/10/arizona-utilities-team-up-legislators-block-competition/6740768001/

Want to quit APS? Legislators are backing a plan to make sure that can never happen

Opinion: Arizona's monopoly utilities don't want you ever to have a choice in where you get your electricity. And the Arizona Legislature is working on a plan to make sure they get their wish.

Laurie Roberts

Arizona Republic

The Arizona Legislature is charging forth with a plan to block competition against utilities like Arizona Public Service.

In August, a Texas company applied to the Arizona Corporation Commission for permission to compete with Arizona Public Service and Tucson Electric Power, giving us captive customers a choice in who provides our electricity.

The state’s monopoly utilities were not amused.

And so, as night follows day, the Arizona Legislature is now charging forth with a plan to block the competition.

This, by repealing a state law that allows other electricity providers to give the big guys a run for their money.

It is a necessary step, the monopoly utilities assure us, to ensure that service remains reliable and affordable.

Funny, I’m pretty sure Ma Bell said the same thing a half century ago. Back when phones were bolted to walls and had these strange curly wires attached to them, when you talked fast when calling long distance because of the resulting exodus from your wallet.

Law says we 'shall' have competition

For two decades, Arizona has had laws in place to allow for competition in who provides the electricity that powers our homes and businesses. In fact, the law flatly says, “a competitive market shall exist.”

It just never materialized, thanks to a court decision challenging the rules to implement that law and a powerful utility lobby that would just as soon not have anyone intrude on its turf, thankyouverymuch.

There was an attempt by the Arizona Corporation Commission to revisit deregulation in 2013 but it was abruptly shelved when APS frowned.

Fast forward to August, when Texas-based Green Mountain Energy applied to the commission to begin selling what they say will be 100% renewable energy plans to APS and Tucson Electric customers. The company already operates in seven states, with licenses in four others, and estimates it’ll have 20,000 Arizona customers within five years.

“Approval of this application is in the public interest,” the company wrote in its application, “because it will result in more options for customers and expand the availability of renewable energy in Arizona.”

I picture the executives over at APS's parent company, Pinnacle West Capital Corp., fainting in a dead heap right there on their marble boardroom floor.

Bill could end competition as we know it

Enter House Bill 2101, which has the bipartisan support of a whopping 36 legislators. It was defeated a few weeks ago on the House floor but after a little muscle was applied, was brought back this week and passed 37-21.

The bill (and its companion, Senate Bill 1631)would not only block Green Mountain from operating in Arizona but would threaten the rooftop solar industry as well.

That’s because the law our leaders seek to repeal – the one mandating competitive markets – was recently cited by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals when it ruled that Salt River Project risks antitrust trouble if itjacks up rates to price competing services (read: rooftop solar) out of the market.

Take away the law and well, you get the picture.

Utilities and their champions at the Legislature insist their monopoly status protects consumers, keeps rates low and electricity flowing.

“Reliability and affordability is really at the top of my concern,” House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee Chairwoman Gail Griffin, the sponsor of this drive to end competition before it can begin, said during a recent hearing on her bill.

Without repeal, utilities warn us we may be subject to the woes of California when it had rolling blackouts two decades ago or the misery of Texas, where millions lost power during a deadly freeze last February and prices went soaring.

It's never bad to let APS know we have choice

But, as The Arizona Republic’s Robert Robb pointed out,California’s competitive setup contained flaws that don’t exist in Arizona and Arizona law requires the Corporation Commission to set rates within a range, preventing a Texas-style price spike.

During the recent hearing on the bill, a spokesman for Green Mountain brushed aside the utilities’ dire warnings of doom and gloom, saying its prices would be competitive and its customers still would have to pay for upkeep of the grid as well as a fee to the “native utility” to serve as a backup provider.

“Reliability is being used in this bill as a fig leaf by people who simply want to close off choice to their customers and retain a monopoly,” said Travis Kavulla, vice president of Regulatory Affair of NRG Energy Inc., the parent company of Green Mountain.

Count Corporation Commissioner and free-market fan Justin Olson among those who support competition. He says his study of price data from the Energy Information Administration suggests it would drive down rates.

[Arizona judge rules that 'law enforcement' is NOT a profession

If the Constitution means anything, kick Rep. Gosar off the ballot

Does Ducey really think cops in Alaska can help secure our border?]

Data is mixed on that but one thing seems clear.

It is never a bad thing for APS and other utilities to know that we have a choice.

The fact that the Legislature doesn’t see that is stunning.

Somebody should pull the plug on this bad plan.

Who supports this bill?

Here are the legislators who voted for to HB 2101: [FINCHEM LATER?]

Republican Reps. Gail Griffin of Hereford, Rusty Bowers of Mesa, Brenda Barton of Payson, Leo Biasiucci of Lake Havasu City, Walter Blackman of Snowflake. Frank Carroll of Sun City West, Regina Cobb of Kingman, David Cook of Globe, Lupe Diaz of Benson, Tim Dunn of Yuma, John Fillmore of Apache Junction, Joel John of Yuma, Steve Kaiser of Phoenix, John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills, Teresa Martinez of Casa Grande, Quang Nguyen of Prescott, Joanne Osborne of Goodyear, Jennifer Pawlik of Chandler, Kevin Payne of Peoria, Ben Toma of Peoria, Michelle Udall of Mesa, Jeff Weninger of Chandler Justin Wilmeth of Phoenix.

Democratic Reps. Morgan Abraham of Tucson, Richard Andrade of Phoenix, Jasmine Blackwater-Nygun of Red Mesa, César Chávez of Phoenix, Andrea Dalessandro of Sahuarita, Diego Espinoza of Tolleson, Brian Fernandez of Yuma, Alma Hernandez of Tucson, Daniel Hernandez of Tucson, Chris Mathis of Tucson, Robert Meza of Phoenix, Marcelino Quiñonez of Phoenix, Lorenzo Sierra of Avondale, Myron Tsosie of Chinle

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

===

an 1 22

Trump picks a QAnon-linked supporter as his ‘special guest speaker’ at new rally

Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem speaking before the Arizona State Senate Finance Committee at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix in March 2017]

Alex Henderson January 11, 2022

Whenever Donald Trump was asked about QAnon during the 2020 presidential race, he avoided either promoting or criticizing their far-right conspiracy theorists. Trump would typically say that he didn’t know much about QAnon but heard that they “love America” and oppose pedophilia. Now, Trump is featuring a major QAnon supporter at a Florence, Arizona MAGA rally scheduled for this Saturday, January 15: Arizona State Sen. Mark Finchem, billed as the event’s “special guest speaker.”

Finchem is running for Arizona secretary of state — a position presently held by Democrat Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor. Republicans who have been competing with Finchem for the GOP nomination in that secretary of state race includeShawnna Bolick, Michelle Ugenti-Rita and Beau Lane; Trump has endorsed Finchem, who hasn’t been shy about promoting QAnon’s ludicrous conspiracy theories.

QAnon believes, among many other things, that the United States’ federal government has been taken over by an international cabal of pedophiles, child sex traffickers, Satanists and cannibals and that Trump was elected in 2016 to fight the cabal — which they think is being funded in part by billionaire Democrat George Soros. QAnon adherents mostly blame Democrats for the cabal, but they blame some Never Trump Republicans as well.

Three months ago, GOP Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem was a featured speaker at a QAnon conference.[DOUBLEDOWN?] This Saturday he will be a "special" guest speaker at Donald Trump's rally in Arizona. Read all about it:https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/01/donald-trump-mark-finchem-qanon-big-lie-arizona-rally/\u00a0\u2026

— David Corn (@David Corn) 1641926764

In a 2020 interview with Victory Media, Finchem said, “We’ve got a serious problem in this nation. There’s a lot of people involved in a pedophile network in the distribution of children…. And, unfortunately, there’s a whole lot of elected officials that are involved in that.’”

[READ: ‘Lying on purpose?’: Experts slam Manchin for ‘Trumpian lie’]

Finchem, however, isn’t the only QAnon supporter Trump has allied himself with. Others include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

Mother Jones’ David Corn reports, “Finchem has repeatedly declined to comment to reporters about his QAnon-ish beliefs, but his QAnon connection has become something of an issue in his race for secretary of state, with media reports referring to his past statements and posts. In October, he was a ‘special guest’ at a QAnon conference in Las Vegas. The speakers for this event were a veritable parade of QAnon promoters and other fringe theorists.”

In addition to supporting QAnon, Finchem has aggressively promoted the Big Lie— Trump’s false and debunked claim that he really won the 2020 election but was robbed of his victory because of widespread voter fraud. One recount after another has made it abundantly clear that now-President Joe Biden legitimately won that election; in fact, he defeated Trump by more than 7 million votes. Regardless, Finchem continues to promote Trump’s bogus election fraud claims.

The January 15 MAGA rally will feature an extremist who’s-who of far-right Big Lie promoters, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell; Kelli Ward, who chairs the Arizona GOP; Rep. Paul Gosar (who was censured by House Democrats for posting an animated video that depicted him murdering Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), Rep. Andy Biggs and Kari Lake, a former Fox anchor who is running for governor.

READ: ‘You cannot let this happen’: MSNBC host delivers powerful plea directly to Biden to stop a starvation crisis

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Committee assignments

This membership information was last updated in March 2021. Ballotpedia completes yearly updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2021-2022

Finchem was assigned to the following committees:

2019-2020

Finchem was assigned to the following committees:

2017 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:

[hide]Arizona committee assignments, 2017
• Federalism, Property Rights and Public Policy, Vice chair
• Judiciary and Public Safety
• Military, Veterans and Regulatory Affairs, Vice chair

2015 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Finchem served on the following committees:

[show]Arizona committee assignments, 2015

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills sponsored by this legislator. Bills are monitored by BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills sponsored by this person, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

widget no lnx

Introduced Session

Fifty-fifth Legislature - Second Regular Session (2022)

Bill Summary

Electric energy; reliability; public policy

Subject

Cities And Towns - Title 9 Corporations And Associations - Title 10 Electric Energy Power - Title 30 Public Policy Public Utilities And Carriers - Title 40 Reliability

Sponsors (36)

Gail Griffin (R):{*:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, Morgan Abraham (D), Nancy Barto (R), Sonny Borrelli (R), Russell Bowers (R), Andres Cano (D), Cesar Chavez (D), Regina Cobb (R), David Cook (R), Andrea Dalessandro (D), Lupe Diaz (R), Timothy Dunn (R), Diego Espinoza (D), Karen Fann (R), :{Mark Finchem (R),}: David Gowan (R), Rick Gray (R), Alma Hernandez (D), Joel John (R), Steve Kaiser (R), John Kavanagh (R), Sine Kerr (R), Vince Leach (R), Sarah Liguori (D), David Livingston (R), Teresa Martinez (R), Robert Meza (D), Quang Nguyen (R), Warren Petersen (R), Marcelino Quinonez (D), Rebecca Rios (D), T.J. Shope (R), Lorenzo Sierra (D), Ben Toma (R), Kelly Townsend (R), Justin Wilmeth (R),

Last Action

Transmitted to Governor (on 04/20/2022)

Official Document

https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/76504

(1 Companion Bills)

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AZ HB2495 - Schools; sexually explicit materials; prohibition

Schools; sexually explicit materials; prohibition

04/20/2022: Senate Committee of the Whole action: Retained

AZ HB2696 - Mandatory sentences; children; trafficking; smuggling

Mandatory sentences; children; trafficking; smuggling

04/20/2022: Transmit to House

AZ HB2507 - Religious services; essential services

Religious services; essential services

04/19/2022: Transmitted to Governor

AZ HB2616 - Mask mandates; minors; parental consent

Mask mandates; minors; parental consent

04/19/2022: Transmitted to Governor

AZ HB2645 - False filings; UCC; penalty

False filings; UCC; penalty

04/19/2022: Transmit to House

AZ HB2482 - Municipality; general plan; adoption; amendment

Municipality; general plan; adoption; amendment

04/18/2022: Transmitted to Governor

AZ HB2610 - Project unit size; affordable housing

Project unit size; affordable housing

04/13/2022: Senate Committee of the Whole action: Do Pass Amended

AZ HB2455 - Incorporation; urban areas

Incorporation; urban areas

04/06/2022: Chapter 108

AZ HB2615 - Youth music and art special plates

Youth music and art special plates

04/06/2022: Chapter 110

AZ HB2251 - Lasers; peace officers; aircraft; penalty

Lasers; peace officers; aircraft; penalty

04/06/2022: Senate Committee of the Whole action: Do Pass Amended

AZ HCM2009 - Department of agriculture; additional offices

Department of agriculture; additional offices

04/04/2022: Transmitted to Secretary Of State

AZ HCR2017 - Constitutional property tax exemptions; consolidation

Constitutional property tax exemptions; consolidation

03/31/2022: Senate Appropriations (10:30 3/31/2022 SHR 109)

AZ HB2107 - Emergency powers; business closure; repeal.

Emergency powers; business closure; repeal.

03/30/2022: Chapter 86

AZ HB2617 -Voter registration;cancellations; causes

Voter registration; cancellations; causes

03/28/2022: Senate majority caucus: Do pass

AZ HB2108 - Taxi drivers; sex offenders prohibited

Taxi drivers; sex offenders prohibited

03/24/2022: Chapter 54

AZ HB2454 - Statutory conformity; property tax exemptions

Statutory conformity; property tax exemptions

03/23/2022: Senate Finance (10:00 3/23/2022 SHR 109)

AZ HB2183 - Wildfires; flooding; fire insurance

Fire insurance; flooding; wildfires

03/23/2022: Senate FIN Committee action: do pass amended/strike-everything, voting: (5-2-3-0)

AZ HB2609 - Ambulance services; service areas

Ambulance services; service areas

03/23/2022: Senate HHS Committee action: Do Pass Amended, voting: (7-0-1-0)

AZ HB2657 - Forced labor; manufactured goods

Forced labor; manufactured goods

03/23/2022: Senate COM Committee action: Do Pass Amended, voting: (5-3-1-0)

AZ SB1708 - Motion picture production; tax credits

Motion picture production; tax credits

03/23/2022: House APPROP Committee action: Do Pass Amended, voting: (8-5-0-0-0-0)

AZ HB2780 - Voter lists; images; voting records

Voter lists; images; voting records

03/21/2022: Senate GOV Committee action: Do Pass Amended, voting: (4-2-1-0)

AZ HB2786 - Voter registrations; ballot requests; source

Voter registrations; ballot requests; source

03/21/2022: Senate GOV Committee action: Do Pass Amended, voting: (4-3-0-0)

AZ HB2248 - Failure to return vehicle; repeal

Failure to return vehicle; repeal

03/21/2022: Senate Transportation and Technology (14:0...

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rww 12 21

constitutional Sheriff’ Richard Mack Endorses Mark Finchem, :{Oath Keeper, QAnon Promoter, and Stop the Steal Activist, for Arizona Secretary of Stat:(style="font-weight:400"):}:e

vice

no lnx pix

QAnon Is Becoming Even More Antisemitic

One of the movement’s biggest influencers just encouraged his followers to watch a 10-part neo-Nazi film.

By David Gilbert

October 18, 2021,

[A man wearing a 'Defund the Media' QAnon shirt is seen at a "Stop the Steal" rally against the results of the U.S. Presidential election outside the Georgia State Capitol on November 18, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. ]

[Disinfo Dispatch Padding

Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.]

The organizer of a major QAnon conference in Las Vegas later this week, where at least four sitting GOP lawmakers speak on stage, shared a neo-Nazi film with his 70,000 followers on Sunday evening.

John Sabal, who’s known online as QAnon John, is preparing for Thursday’s “For God and Country: Patriot Double Down” conference, but on Sunday night he took time out of his busy schedule to share a post about people who had praised “Europa – the Last Battle.” It’s a 10-part film that claims Jews created Communism and deliberately started both world wars as part of a plot to found Israel by provoking the innocent Nazis, who were only defending themselves.

“If you want to know the truth, well look no further. Here it is, escape the matrix and watch it today,” the post Sabal shared said.

Moments later, Sabal shared a direct link to allow his followers to watch the film on the alternative video-sharing site Rumble.

While this film has been shared by some of QAnon’s more fringe and extremist figures, the fact Sabal feels emboldened to share it so publicly is a testament to how antisemitic thinking has become normalized within the movement.

This was reflected in the comments under the posts from Sabal’s followers who offered no pushback against his support of such antisemitic content.

When one follower did attempt to criticize Sabal for posting the link, other members of the channel quickly attacked that user, claiming they were some sort of undercover agent of the “deep state.”

Others credulously claimed the user criticizing Sabal had misunderstood the film: “I'm sorry that's what you took away from our neo-Nazi film. It's really about how killing the Jews is necessary and good because they're not real Jews,” one of Sabal’s followers wrote.[CUFI red calf bs?]

After Sabal’s comments were highlighted by extremist researchers on Twitter, the posts mysteriously disappeared from his channel.

The video series is very well-known in extremist circles, yet apparently Sabal shared it completely innocently with his tens of thousands of followers.

“He had no idea that there was any anti-Semitism connected to that film,” Sabal’s partner Amy told VICE News in a message. “He has never even watched the movie. It was referred to him by a supposed ‘trusted’ source.”

Later this week, Sabal will host a raft of GOP lawmakers, including sitting Arizona Reps. Wendy Rogers and Sonny Borrelli. Also scheduled to speak are multiple Republican candidates running for secretary of state, including candidates in the swing states of Michigan KEVARO SP?, Arizona FINCHEM, and Nevada. CA HAMM AND MARCHANT

Despite calling himself “QAnon John,” and even though many of the movement’s biggest influencers will be sharing speaking time with members of the Republican Party, Sabal has in the past claimed this is not a QAnon conference. Among them will be Ron Watkins, who facilitated the rise of QAnonand who last week announced his plan to run for Congress.

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