Table Of Content
Steele is precinct committee member for the district who was among the signers of a March 28 resolution by GOP district officials in support of Harris for "her commitment to Election Integrity, and her efforts to expose corruption on whichever side of the aisle it falls." Department of Justice’s civil rights division, which warned about potential voter intimidation. On Tuesday, the House Ethics Committee determined that Ms. Harris had violated legislative rules by inviting a witness to present false testimony. In addition to the bribery accusation, the witness also claimed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had control over state agencies.
Support
A bipartisan, two-thirds majority of the GOP-led House voted Wednesday to kick out Liz Harris, a freshman lawmaker from Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. House Democrats said the report validated their previous attempt to censure Harris — a maneuver that was sidestepped by House Republicans, who said at the time it was premature pending an ethics investigation. “What the House Rules cannot tolerate is a member engaged in the conduct described above, which erodes public trust in the legislative process,” according to the report, which was unanimously signed by the three Republicans and two Democrats on the panel. "It will be perceived as setting the precedent that if you rock the boat too much, you will be expelled," said Kolodin, who voted against expulsion. Ethics Chairman Rep. Joe Chaplik, R-Scottsdale, led the investigation and report conducted for Harris.
The Arizona House expels a Republican lawmaker for her role in baseless testimony
Don Shooter, who was found to have serially sexually harassed his colleagues and lobbyists at the state Capitol. In full, the ethics panel concluded Harris’ actions violated House Rules and damaged the body’s institutional integrity. That was problematic enough to merit the ethics investigation and expulsion, according to House Speaker Ben Toma — a Republican, and one of the lawmakers falsely accused of criminal activity. But a video of her testimony exploded on the internet in the days following the hearing. A bipartisan, two-thirds majority of the House voted Wednesday to kick out Harris, an election-denying freshman lawmaker from Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix.
Arizona House votes to expel State Rep. Liz Harris
Republican and Democratic representatives joined together to expel Harris with a vote. The last expulsion from the Arizona legislature was in 2018, though before that, the most recent was in 1991. Representative Liz Harris was ousted from her seat by the G.O.P.-controlled House for promoting conspiracy theories during a legislative hearing. A Republican, she was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from January 2023 to April 2023.
How Wild Accusations Tore The Arizona GOP Apart
Election deniers have zeroed in on Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa, where Election Day glitches last fall disrupted some ballot counting. An independent report released on Monday found that heavy paper and longer ballots contributed to those problems. The desk used by Arizona Republican Rep. Liz Harris at the state Capitol in Phoenix stands empty moments after she was expelled from the Legislature on Wednesday. Since making the statement, Harris has voted on 100 bills, despite the 2022 election never being redone.
Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives are down one member following the expulsion of Rep. Liz Harris, R-Chandler, in a vote by her colleagues. Harris’s Republican colleagues were split on the expulsion vote, with some saying she clearly crossed a line and others saying expulsion went too far despite her lack of judgment on the issue. The expulsion resolution said that Harris “undermined the public’s confidence in this institution and violated the order and decorum necessary to complete the people’s work in the state of Arizona”. The ethics panel stopped short of recommending a specific punishment for Ms. Harris by the House, in which fellow election deniers have wielded significant power and orchestrated a partisan review of the 2020 election results in Arizona.
Arizona Rep. Liz Harris was expelled. Here's how she will be replaced - The Arizona Republic
Arizona Rep. Liz Harris was expelled. Here's how she will be replaced.
Posted: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Emailing Representative Liz Harris
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls. Breger’s testimony in March was fiery, directly (and falsely) alleging that dozens of public servants were on the take.
Julie Willoughby sworn in to replace Liz Harris - Arizona Mirror
Julie Willoughby sworn in to replace Liz Harris.
Posted: Fri, 05 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
In one of the text messages, Breger told Harris she was “trying to think of something that won’t raise a red flag” when naming her presentation, a sign that Harris knew of the extreme allegations the presenter would bring up.
The fact that they were presented before Republican lawmakers in their official capacity at the state Capitol — Democrats on the committees boycotted the hearing — gave the accusations enough credibility to spread. Gilbert insurance agent Jacqueline Breger also claimed during the February hearing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints “controls” the government and played a key role in money laundering schemes. Before she was elected to the Legislature, Harris led a door-to-door canvassing effort searching for proof of fraud following the 2020 presidential election.
The woman, Gilbert, Ariz., insurance agent Jacqueline Breger, also claimed during the February hearing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "controls" the government and played a key role in money laundering schemes. "In my discussions with Ms. Harris, she firmly believes her removal was improper and unlawful," said Supervisor Jack Sellers, who represents an area that includes the legislative district. "This board was not a party to that process but must give weight to an action that over two-thirds of the House members voted in favor of." Rep. Liz Harris was found to have violated House rules by inviting a witness to present false charges about lawmakers and other state officials to a legislative committee.
Breger, an insurance agent from Scottsdale, attributed her allegations to a report written by John Thaler, who she said was an attorney with a background in fraud investigations. The full chamber vote came a day after the House Ethics Committee released a report that said Harris damaged “the integrity of the House” through her actions. Legislative District 13 precinct committee members nominated Liz Harris, Julie Willoughby and Steve Steele in two rounds of voting at their meeting April 17. But she likely would have little chance of winning the approval of the supervisors and Sellers, a harsh critic of the state Senate's partisan audit of the 2020 election who called the effort in 2021 an "adventure in never-never land."
Among other things, she alleged that “the City of Mesa is a racketeering organization” and that nonexistent “phantoms” were employed as attorneys and election officials. PHOENIX (AP) — Republican lawmaker Liz Harris who was previously expelled will not be sent back to the Arizona House of Representatives, Maricopa County officials announced Friday. All Democrats and most Republicans voted to expel Harris, getting the necessary two-thirds of the House to pass the resolution. PHOENIX - The Arizona House has voted to expel Republican state lawmaker Liz Harris.
Arizona’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives took the rare step on Wednesday of expelling a G.O.P. lawmaker who earlier this year had arranged testimony from a conspiracy theorist falsely accusing top state officials of bribery and other misconduct. "Harris engaged in disorderly behavior in violation of House Rule 1, thereby eroding the public trust in the legislative process," the resolution calling for her expulsion read. "Each member could make up their own mind on whether or not Rep. Harris did, in fact, not only perpetrate this to begin with, but then contradict herself numerous times during the ethics hearing process," said Toma, one of the 46 lawmakers who voted to expel Harris. A prominent supporter of discredited election conspiracies, she was also found by the House Ethics Committee to have engaged in "disorderly behavior" in violation of the chamber’s rules. Arizona Republican Liz Harris was expelled from the state House of Representatives for inviting a witness to present false charges about lawmakers and other state officials — and then lying about her involvement in the outrageous testimony.
No comments:
Post a Comment