PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Senate can’t claim legislative privilege to avoid releasing a wide variety of records from the review of the 2020 vote count conducted on behalf of Republican leaders, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired to lead the Senate GOP’s unprecedented election review, said the company is insolvent and can’t afford to pay attorneys to help it comply with court orders to release public documents.
The Senate and Cyber Ninjas have been battling for months over two public records lawsuits, one each filed by the parent of The Arizona Republic and American Oversight, a government watchdog group.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah took a step toward resolving a key issue when he carved out a narrow view of legislative privilege in the case filed by Phoenix Newspapers Inc., the publisher of the Republic. Hannah said the Senate may be able to keep secret only the communications of lawmakers discussing legislation, but talk of the Senate’s so-called "forensic audit" that don’t relate to the public policy implications is not privileged.
He put his ruling on hold to give the Court of Appeals and potentially the Arizona Supreme Court time to review the boundaries of legislative privilege. The Court of Appeals has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on that question in the American Oversight case.
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