The former Election Integrity Unit civil attorney for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is making it clear she does not believe the new attorney general is rightfully in office. Jennifer Wright – who resigned before Democrat Kris Mayes took office, but who Mayes’ office claimed was fired to journalists, causing Wright to start the process for a libel lawsuit – has joined the legal team of Mayes’ opponent, Republican Abe Hamadeh, who is challenging the results of the extremely close election.
Wright tweeted that she initially turned down Hamadeh’s offer but changed her mind “after @krismayes targeted me by falsely and unlawfully planting a hit on me on @azcentral.” She said “it became clear that left unchecked, the new admin intended to abuse their power.”
@AbrahamHamadeh initially asked me to join his team upon my resignation. Exhausted, and knowing he has excellent legal counsel, I initially declined to take a significant role.
4/— Jen Wright (@JenWEsq) January 18, 2023
Wright said in a statement released by the Hamadeh campaign on Tuesday, “Not only do I believe Abe is right, but I also believe that he will be successful in his election contest and that is why I have joined this fight. The evidence is clear coming out of Pinal County – Katie Hobbs and her attorneys were hiding evidence. … I look forward to getting Kris Mayes out of the office she should have never occupied in the first place,” said Wright.
Wright was referring to several hundred ballots that appeared in Pinal County after the election, which heavily favored Hamadeh, reducing Mayes’ win from 511 to 280 votes. Hobbs did not inform Hamadeh’s team or the public about the findings for eight days. After a trial court judge dismissed his lawsuit, Hamadeh filed a motion for a new trial based on the new evidence of voter disenfranchisement, also citing other new evidence, including 50,000 undervotes of ballots on Election Day that were not tabulated due to printer issues and provisional ballots that were not counted.
Wright said on the James T. Harris Show, “I believe that every legal vote deserves to be counted. There are significant concerns as to whether the voting machines actually read the undervoted ballots, & whether or not all provisionals that were required to be counted by law were counted.”
Wright expounded on her concern about Mayes’ ability to govern, considering she said she believes Mayes lied about firing her.
“If Kris Mayes is willing to lie about me for something so little, I’m concerned and worried that she’ll use her position of power to lie about other things that could include: indictments, political prosecutions against her political enemies.” Wright specified the code that she believed Mayes broke, “@krismayes made her “first official act[]” to lie and break Arizona Admin Code. I will hold her legally accountable.”
Wright posted a copy of the litigation threat her attorney sent to Mayes, tweeting “💥SERVED💥 “Arizona Administrative Code § R2-5A-105(D) limits the personnel information that an agency may disclose publicly… and your lies to the media fit nowhere within the authorized public disclosures.”
She added in another tweet, referring to an AZ Central article that reported she was fired, “And I intend to hold @azcentral accountable, unless they FULLY recant their provably false story, remove defamatory tweets, and publish my already submitted OpEd.”
Hamadeh added praise for Wright in his statement. “Jen is an election attorney powerhouse who worked tirelessly in Attorney General Brnovich’s office to make sure we had confidence and integrity in our elections,” he said. “I’m honored that she’s joining our election contest for the closest race in Arizona history where there are still hundreds of uncounted ballots. Democracy demands accurate results in our elections and I know Jen will fight relentlessly to make sure every voter’s voice is heard.”
Rasmussen Reports tweeted about the move, “New Today in The Banana Republic of Hobbs: Smeared, threatened and defamed former Assistant AG @JenWEsq hits back at @azcentral & Hobbs and joins AG Candidate @AbrahamHamadeh in challenging the shamtastic artificially manufactured November 2022 AZ election chaos.”
Many of the election attorneys representing Republican candidates in election challenges have ended up with sanctions or disciplined by state bars.
“Jill” on Twitter tweeted at Wright, “Do you enjoy sanctions?” Wright responded, “Threats will not dissuade me. Find someone with a weak constitution to bully. 👉🏼 Evidence was withheld, machines failed to tabulate votes and erroneously marked them as undervotes, and it appears some provisional ballots were erroneously rejected. 💥Good faith basis.”
Threats will not dissuade me. Find someone with a weak constitution to bully.
👉🏼 Evidence was withheld, machines failed to tabulate votes and erroneously marked them as undervotes, and it appears some provisional ballots were erroneously rejected.
💥Good faith basis.
— Jen Wright (@JenWEsq) January 18, 2023
Judges have removed elected officials from office due to disputes over valid votes at least twice in Arizona’s history. In the 1997 case Reyes v. Cuming, signatures on the ballot envelopes were not compared to the voter registration list, so the Arizona Court of Appeals removed a Yuma County Supervisor from office months after the election and replaced him with his opponent.
In the 1917 case Hunt v. Campbell, the Arizona Supreme Court removed the governor from office several months after he was elected to office after allegations of voter fraud surfaced, replacing him with his Republican challenger.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jennifer Wright” by Jennifer Wright.
