Table Of Content
- The Right Can’t Stop Talking About This Conspiracy Theory Movie — And It’s Roiling The Midterms
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- The Arizona House expels a Republican lawmaker for her role in baseless testimony
- Arizona House votes to expel Rep. Liz Harris
- Harris expelled following controversial presentation at state legislature
Harris was elected in November 2022 from the 13th legislative district, which includes much of Chandler, Arizona. It's the second time in six years the House has voted to kick out one of its own. The ethics report also found that Harris lied to the panel when she claimed she had no idea Breger would make such wild accusations. 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.
The Right Can’t Stop Talking About This Conspiracy Theory Movie — And It’s Roiling The Midterms
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will choose from a list of three candidates nominated by the GOP precinct committeemen in her district. Breger also claimed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “control[s]” government agencies and was “integral to the laundering activities,” the report said. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will choose from a list of three candidates nominated by the Republican precinct committeemen in her district. “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. Alexander Kolodin, who voted against expulsion, said expelling Harris set a bad precedent because it held her accountable for comments made by a member of the public.
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The expulsion “gives credit to these awful allegations and makes her a martyr for them”, she said. Before she joined the legislature, Harris gained notoriety for her involvement in election denialism. After the 2020 election, she led an unsanctioned canvass of voters, which was then debunked by elections experts. When Hobbs, a Democrat, won the governorship in November, Harris said she would not vote for anything unless there was a revote of the 2022 election.
The Arizona House expels a Republican lawmaker for her role in baseless testimony
On Tuesday, the House Ethics Committee released a report saying Harris broke ethics rules when she invited a guest that made unsubstantiated claims at a February joint committee hearing. Breger in February spoke at a public hearing in front of lawmakers when she, without evidence, accused numerous Republican and Democratic public officials of laundering money for the Sinaloa Drug Cartel through the use of fraudulent mortgage documents. She also accused the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints of being "integral to the laundering activities." During her Feb. 23 presentation at a hearing organized by Harris, Jaqueline Breger accused a swath of politicians from both parties, judges and public officials of taking bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.
The committee found Harris knew of the bribery claims ahead of the hearing and did not comply with internal deadlines to show any presentations to House leaders, which could have flagged the presentation as out of bounds. Her removal came less than a week after Tennessee Republicans voted to expel two Black Democrats, a decision that made that state a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy. They’re widely shared among right wing media figures and carry the imprimatur of an official legislative proceeding. Harris’ actions violated House Rule No. 1, which prohibits members from engaging in disorderly behavior, according to the ethics panel, which further concluded that Harris had damaged the institutional integrity of the House. “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 Representative 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.
Among those accused by Jacqueline Breger, a local insurance agent with no elections expertise, included Governor Katie Hobbs and other state lawmakers such as the house speaker, Ben Toma. After the hearing, the Democratic representative Stephanie Stahl Hamilton filed an ethics complaint against Harris. The bipartisan house ethics committee, chaired by a Republican, subsequently investigated the complaint and concluded Harris had committed disorderly behavior in violation of house rules. The committee recommended the full house decide how best to discipline Harris. Liz Harris, an election-denying Republican lawmaker in the Arizona house of representatives, was expelled by her colleagues on Wednesday after she invited to a committee hearing a conspiracy theorist who accused elected officials of unproven corruption and bribery. Harris was kicked out last month in a bipartisan vote for organizing a presentation where an Arizona insurance agent made unsubstantiated accusations that a wide range of politicians, judges and public officials of both parties took bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.
Liz Harris expelled from state House for lying about conspiracy presentation - Arizona Mirror
Liz Harris expelled from state House for lying about conspiracy presentation.
Posted: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Now-former state Rep. Liz Harris expelled from the Arizona House
Ms. Harris, from Chandler, became just one of a handful of Arizona lawmakers to be expelled. Representative Liz Harris, an election denier who has expressed support for QAnon and has aligned herself with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder who has pushed election conspiracy theories, was overwhelmingly removed from office by her colleagues. The expulsion in Arizona follows the expulsions — for different reasons — of two Black lawmakers in Tennessee. Democrats Justin J. Pearson and Justin Jones were kicked out by a Republican supermajority after the pair — alongside Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white — led a protest from the House floor calling for reforms to gun laws.
"On a personal note, the only thing we have down here is our word and our integrity, and when that is clearly crossed, when you can no longer count on someone's word and integrity, they can no longer be an effective legislator." The State House Speaker, Rep. Ben Toma (R), said Harris' expulsion was necessary, and that she needed to be held accountable for her bad behavior. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has 10 days to appoint someone to replace Harris. Authorities asked the public to share information about a Phoenix homicide victim named Mohamed Toure on Saturday.
Lawmakers had accused Ms. Harris of making a mockery of Arizona’s Legislature by inviting Jacqueline Breger, a Scottsdale, Ariz., insurance agent and conspiracy theorist, to testify during a February hearing about election oversight. The House voted 46 to 13 to banish her, easily surpassing the necessary two-thirds threshold. The action was taken after an ethics complaint was filed against Ms. Harris by a Democratic lawmaker. Twenty-nine Democrats joined 17 Republicans to vote for expulsion, while all 13 nay votes came from Republicans, including Ms. Harris. But a video of her testimony in front of election committees exploded on the internet in the days following the hearing.
He said he thought it was appropriate Ethics members make their own decision on the vote to expel Harris and was the only Ethics member who voted against expelling her. As Harris left, the now ex-lawmaker called the ethics report "a lie," and said "God knows the truth." Prior to her expulsion, Harris represented the state's 13th Legislative District, which covers a portion of the East Valley. The Speaker of the State House, Republican Ben Toma, said Harris' expulsion is necessary, and taht she was held accountable for bad behavior. The resolution to expel Harris cites the committee’s findings, which said the first-term lawmaker knew in advance Breger was going to make the criminal allegations and failed to provide the information for review beforehand, in violation of House regulations.
As a result, the ethics panel found that Harris violated House rule number one, which prohibits disorderly behavior that could damage the House’s institutional integrity. “To go down a trail of conspiracy theories that were thrown out of court, it’s very dangerous,” Stahl Hamilton said. The lawmaker’s ouster came a day after the House Ethics Committee determined Harris had engaged in “disorderly behavior” in violation of the chamber’s rules. Harris organized a daylong hearing of the House and Senate elections committees in February. At the end, a Scottsdale insurance agent, Jacqueline Breger, gave a 40-minute presentation alleging without reliable evidence that two women working on behalf of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel used fraudulent mortgage documents to launder money to a range of officials. At the end, a Scottsdale insurance agent, Jacqueline Breger, gave a 40-minute presentation alleging without reliable evidence that two women working on behalf of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel used fraudulent mortgage documents to launder money to a range of officials.
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