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| AG Mark Brnovich |
In 2021, the then-Attorney General of the state of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, deliberately withheld a study his office originated and carried out, choosing not to release the findings to the public. (Don't giggle, but you may remember that weird mighty ninja voting outfit AZ Republicans used to verify the 2020 election results.)
Now Arizona ranks as ground-zero in America's political divides, home to Kari Lake, who still maintains her victory in the state's governor's race. The Arizona desert is a real MAGA hotbed. Ordinary human beings there go ballistic about "voter fraud." The state was--and remains--seething, first because the AG's early (but correct) call that Joe Biden had won the state; and second because a mob of true believers bought the allegation that voter fraud had most certainly had occurred in Maricopa County, where about half the voters in the state reside.
So the Arizona AG directed a study, but then sat on the results rather than release them to the public. What that study showed was that there was no voter fraud in Maricopa County, Arizona, that election officials were not crooked or undercover libs, but public servants doing their job with patience and care in the face of vicious vilification from the mega-intolerance of the MAGA world.
That he didn't release the findings of his own office's study isn't criminal--he didn't have to release any findings about anything--but his not letting the public know, most certainly, is reprehensible.
Among the Don's disciples, I don't know that anything would--or will--tarnish the view that the Orange Man got screwed in the 2020 Presidential election. Trump can do no wrong among his loyalists. But his perpetuation of "the big lie" has fractured the body politic in this nation more painfully in the last two years. That "big lie" might well have seemed less so, at least to some Republicans, had they seen the report the Arizona AG's office undertook and completed. NO VOTER FRAUD.
That he sat on the study may not be a crime, but certainly courts "malfeasance of office."
The human story starts with the fact that Mark Brnovich didn't want another term at AZ's AG. What he really wanted was to go to Washington as Arizona's newest Republican senator. So, while he had to know that sitting on that report would pour salt in the MAGA mob's political mood, he also had to understand that laying a wet blanket over the blazes on the right would jeopardize his Senate candidacy. He'd already been called a RINO. Trump himself disowned him for calling Arizona's election results as early as he did.
As a result, Brnovich got "primaried," as they say, and lost, big time, to a MAGA man.
Mark Brnovich likely determined that he'd already leaned left. He may have figured that releasing the report would do little to change minds locked in to the Big Lie. About that, he may have been right.
Still, when good people do bad things, we all suffer. By not releasing a clearly objective investigative report about voter fraud in Maricopa County, Mark Brnovich served up more Big Lie poison.
Will he go to jail? I doubt it. He broke no law.
Meanwhile, it may be February, but the Arizona desert is still burning.
That he didn't release the findings of his own office's study isn't criminal--he didn't have to release any findings about anything--but his not letting the public know, most certainly, is reprehensible.
Among the Don's disciples, I don't know that anything would--or will--tarnish the view that the Orange Man got screwed in the 2020 Presidential election. Trump can do no wrong among his loyalists. But his perpetuation of "the big lie" has fractured the body politic in this nation more painfully in the last two years. That "big lie" might well have seemed less so, at least to some Republicans, had they seen the report the Arizona AG's office undertook and completed. NO VOTER FRAUD.
That he sat on the study may not be a crime, but certainly courts "malfeasance of office."
The human story starts with the fact that Mark Brnovich didn't want another term at AZ's AG. What he really wanted was to go to Washington as Arizona's newest Republican senator. So, while he had to know that sitting on that report would pour salt in the MAGA mob's political mood, he also had to understand that laying a wet blanket over the blazes on the right would jeopardize his Senate candidacy. He'd already been called a RINO. Trump himself disowned him for calling Arizona's election results as early as he did.
As a result, Brnovich got "primaried," as they say, and lost, big time, to a MAGA man.
Mark Brnovich likely determined that he'd already leaned left. He may have figured that releasing the report would do little to change minds locked in to the Big Lie. About that, he may have been right.
Still, when good people do bad things, we all suffer. By not releasing a clearly objective investigative report about voter fraud in Maricopa County, Mark Brnovich served up more Big Lie poison.
Will he go to jail? I doubt it. He broke no law.
Meanwhile, it may be February, but the Arizona desert is still burning.
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