Photo via Getty Images
Republicans in the Arizona Legislature want to use county sheriff’s departments to force people to comply with their subpoenas, and for anyone who speaks in front of a legislative committee to do so at risk of perjury.
“You shouldn’t be allowed to come down to the legislature and lie to us in the committee, which, unfortunately, far too many people do,” Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, said of the proposal during a March 19 Senate Government Committee hearing.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
House Bill 2824, sponsored by Rep. Tony Rivero, a Peoria Republican, would allow the Senate president, speaker of the House of Representatives or any legislative committee to find a subpoenaed person in contempt. Currently, a person who ignores a subpoena or refuses to testify can only be found in contempt if the full 60-member House or 30-member Senate votes on a resolution.
Rivero’s proposal would allow those accused of contempt to supply evidence to refute the allegations, but would put the power to find someone in contempt in the hands of just a few people instead of the full Senate or House.
Republicans control the House and Senate now, and have done so nearly uninterrupted for 60 years. Rivero told the Arizona Mirror that his intent in sponsoring the bill was to ensure that other elected officials respond to legislative subpoenas in a timely fashion.
“This will require the executive branch and others to be responsive to the legislature,” he said.
Allowing sheriff’s deputies to arrest those in contempt and to deliver them to the House or Senate, and requiring every person who testifies in front of a legislative committee to do so under the penalty of perjury, were added to Rivero’s proposal via amendments from Hoffman.
Rivero told the Mirror that he supports Hoffman’s changes.
“We need people to be up front and honest to the committees,” Rivero said.
The last time that bald-faced lies to a legislative committee resulted in significant consequences was in 2023, when then Rep. Liz Harris, a Chandler Republican, was ousted from her seat in a bipartisan vote for lying about her intent when she invited a woman to testify in front of a joint elections committee, knowing she planned to spread wild conspiracy theories.
The woman claimed that various state and local officials from both parties were involved in a housing deed money laundering scheme involving a Mexican drug cartel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
On March 19, Sen. Lauren Kuby, a Tempe Democrat, claimed that HB2824 was clearly in response to what she called a “partisan stunt” last year when Republicans attempted to impeach Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes.
In May 2024, a group of House Republicans dubbed the Committee on Executive Oversight recommended that the chamber impeach Mayes for unconstitutionally picking and choosing which laws to enforce. The Democratic lawmakers assigned to the committee refused to participate, and Mayes refused to testify during committee hearings, calling them “a sham and a joke.”
The House didn’t take any action on the impeachment recommendation, as it was unlikely Mayes would be removed from office since that would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which would require support from Democrats.
Hoffman refuted Kuby’s claim and said that Rivero’s proposal “had nothing to do with” the committee that investigated Mayes.
Sen. Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, asked Hoffman during an April 10 discussion of the proposal, whether he believed that legislators themselves should be subject to charges of perjury if they lie in their comments during legislative proceedings.
“Personally, I don’t think that we should be lying, period,” Hoffman said, adding that he thinks it’s especially important that people who testify before committees with the intent of influencing the political process are held accountable if they lie to legislators.
Before voting against House Bill 2824 on April 16, Kuby said it would inevitably be abused for political gain since it would allow either the House speaker or Senate president to find someone in contempt if they don’t have enough votes in either chamber to pass a contempt resolution.
“It puts far too much power into the hands of a single person,” she said.
In 2021, Republicans in the Arizona Senate failed in a vote of 15-15 to find the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in contempt for refusing to comply with wide-ranging subpoenas for election equipment and materials to be used in the Senate’s partisan “audit” of the 2020 presidential election results.
One Republican joined with Democrats to block the proposal.
Only three people, including conservative political operative Merissa Hamilton, officially registered in support of HB2824, while 368 people registered in opposition. The counties and sheriff’s offices didn’t officially weigh in, and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the bill.
The measure was approved by the Senate along party lines on April 16, by a vote of 17-13. It will likely be met with a veto from Gov. Katie Hobbs, who is unlikely to give Republican legislative leaders more power to force Democrats in statewide office like herself to testify in front of them or to provide them with information.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
This post was originally authored and published by Caitlin Sievers from AZ Mirror via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
