Tag: arizona

FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona’s largest county as voting probe expands

The FBI is expanding its criminal probe into suspected election irregularities, secretly obtaining a large tranche of voting records from Arizona’s largest county with a recent grand jury subpoena, multiple people familiar with the probe told Just the News.

The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury probe, said FBI agents are receiving gigabytes of electronic election data from Maricopa County, about a month after the bureau first disclosed an investigation into election irregularities by raiding a warehouse near Atlanta and seizing ballots from the 2020 election conducted in Fulton County, Georgia’s largest metropolis.

Election irregularities in Arizona and elsewhere

The subpoena comes five years after the GOP-led Arizona state Senate conducted a lengthy investigation into the 2020 election and concluded there were significant irregularities.

More recently, the bureau was alerted to a report filed by Republican and Democrat election observers who believed they observed irregularities in November 2024 at a warehouse in Arizona where blank and filled-out absentee ballots were observed in the same location, according to the sources.

Congress has never released the report from the staffers who were sent to observe the 2024 election in Maricopa County, which includes Arizona’s largest city of Phoenix.

But House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil recently hinted at the significance of the report in an interview with the Just the News, No Noise television show.

“We’re digging back through those reports that were submitted by our election observers that were deployed across the country,” Steil said. “This is where working hand in glove with other federal government agencies is so important.

“We have reports documenting instances that occurred in Arizona and across the country, and we are reviewing those in real time and working hand in glove with federal partners to make sure that the law was followed in every jurisdiction in the country,” he added.

Keep reading

Arizona Senators Scale Back Bills To Punish Marijuana Users Over Excess Smoke Or Odor Complaints

Arizona senators have dialed back a pair of measures that would penalize people who create “excessive” amounts of marijuana smoke or odor, with members advancing revised versions of the legislation following criticism that, as introduced, they would have added criminalization provisions back into the state’s cannabis use laws.

The latest bill and companion resolution, sponsored by Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R), were amended by the Senate Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, with a floor vote on third reading now imminent. While the bill would on its own enact a statutory policy change, the separate resolution would put the issue before voters to decide.

As the original proposals moved through the legislative process, advocates and certain lawmakers voiced concerns about undermining the will of voters who passed legalization at the ballot, as well as the ambiguity around enforceability and what constitutes “excessive” marijuana smoke.

The legislation was previously amended in committee last month in an attempt to provide a clearer definition of “excessive” smoke and remove a reference to making the offense a “crime.”

The latest revised definition of excessive cannabis smoke or odor describes it as “airborne emissions resulting from the burning, heating or vaporizing of marijuana or marijuana products,” according to a summary of the adopted floor amendment.

Such emissions must also be “detectable by a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities on other private property” and “occur for more than 30 consecutive minutes on a single occasion or on three or more separate days within a 30-day period.”

Members further revised the legislation in response to criticism that the committee-passed versions continued to lack clarity and would pose the threat of criminalization by making the offense a class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a maximum $500 fine and up to one year of probation.

That, too, was ultimately changed in the bill (SB 1725) and resolution (SCR 1048) that are teed up to advance through the full Senate.

Specifically, the legislation stipulates that “excessive marijuana smoke or odor is a public nuisance if the person’s conduct is intentional or the person knowingly and substantially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property,” a summary of the amendment says.

The proposals also now specify that “lawful possession or use of marijuana does not preclude a finding of nuisance, except that a court may consider possession of a valid registry identification card as a mitigating factor,” and they provide that “a person is not liable for committing a private nuisance unless the person has received notice of the interference and fails to abate it within five days.”

Under the revised legislation, the affected party would first have to file a compliant with local officials before they pursue action with the state, but only if the municipality has already adopted an ordinance regulating excessive cannabis smoke or odor.

A person would be deemed in violation of the law if a local court has issued a written order directing them to “abate excessive marijuana smoke or odor that constitutes a nuance” and that person “knowingly violates or refuses to comply with the order.”

Each day of non-compliance after failing to adhere to the order would be consider a separate offense, and failure to comply would be a petty offense, rather than a criminal violation.

Keep reading

Arizona Senators Take Up Bills To Criminalize ‘Excessive’ Marijuana Smoke, Even On Private Property

Arizona lawmakers are considering at a pair of measures that would make the act of creating “excessive” amounts of marijuana smoke a nuisance crime punishable by jail time, even if the person is using cannabis in compliance with state law in their own homes.

Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R) is sponsoring the two proposals—one that would amend state statute legislatively that would put the issue before voters at the ballot. Members of the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee are set to consider the proposals this week.

The lawmaker said he decided to push the issue due to the smell of marijuana in his own neighborhood.

Both versions of Mesnard’s legislation stipulate that “it is presumed that a person who creates excessive marijuana smoke and odor causes a condition that endangers the safety or health of others.”

The reason behind having both a proposed bill and resolution is related to the potential legal challenges of lawmakers changing the voter-approved marijuana legalization law.

The legislation would establish “a presumption that the creation of excessive marijuana smoke and odor is injurious to health, indecent, offensive to the senses and an obstruction to the free use of property that interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property,” a summary of the proposal says.

If enacted, the loosely defined offense of creating “excessive” marijuana smoke under the bill and resolution would be considered a class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a maximum $500 fine and up to one year of probation.

“I’m hearing from some people that, depending on their neighbor situation, they may not be able to have their kids go outside because the marijuana smoke is so potent,” Mesnard, the sponsor, said. “It can even creep into your own house or, in my case, into my garage.”

“But experiencing now what’s happened, even in my own neighborhood, is a pretty frustrating situation,” he told The Arizona Daily Star. “You should be responsible neighbors if you’re going to smoke pot… It can be a real issue for families, especially with kids.”

Asked about the seeming double standard given that no such nuisance offenses exist for smoking cigarettes or cigars on a private property, the senator said, “I’ll concede I hadn’t thought about it.”

Keep reading

Maricopa County Recorder Finds 137 Illegal Voters, Refers 60 Non-Citizens to be Prosecuted for Voting as Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Whines Over Kristi Noem’s Visit to Arizona and Claims Illegals Can’t Vote

While Democrats claim that illegal aliens can’t vote in elections because it’s already illegal and they need to sign an affidavit attesting they’re eligible to vote, Maricopa County recently identified over 100 noncitizens who were registered to vote.

While investigating a voter registration glitch that occurred in the state’s Motor Vehicle Division voter registration system, which, for nearly 20 years, allowed individuals who received a driver’s license before 1996 to vote without citizenship verification, the County Recorder’s office said it identified 137 non-citizens who were registered to vote.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported on this issue, which surfaced in September 2024, just months before the 2024 election. The massive “error” allowed anybody who received a driver’s license before 1996 to vote without citizenship verification, and left nearly 100,000 voters with no citizenship verification. It was later revealed that the error may have affected more than 200,000 voters.

Arizona executive branch officials, who were fraudulently elected after 60% of voting machines failed Republican voters in 2022, were further caught discussing the error and admitting that the 2020 and 2022 elections were “challengable” as a result.

Nearly half of them, 60, “have voted in prior elections,” according to the Recorder’s office.

Those 60 individuals have been referred for prosecution to the Maricopa County Attorney’s office and the Arizona Attorney General.

This comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Arizona on Friday to deliver remarks in support of the SAVE America Act. Some speculate that the federal government may return to Arizona to investigate the fraud in the state’s elections.

After Noem’s speech in Arizona, where she rebuked the state’s election procedures, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes attempted to puff out his chest and own Noem with a contemptuous video statement, claiming that Arizona already requires proof of citizenship to vote. “We’ve been doing that for 20 years, maybe not in the Dakotas, where you came from, but we do it here,” he said.

However, this is not true. To vote in Arizona, one simply must check a box saying they are a US citizen. Ironically, the Secretary released the following video on the same day that Maricopa County found the illegal voters!

Keep reading

Neighbor Says One Dead and Three Detained After SWAT Team Raids Home as Part of Nancy Guthrie Investigation

A dramatic Friday night SWAT raid tied to the kidnapping of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie ended with one person shooting himself in the head as law enforcement closed in, a neighbor claimed to local media.

According to a Shadow Hills resident who spoke directly to KVOA News 4 Tucson, she witnessed three people being detained during the operation, and says another individual turned a gun on himself.

The statement had not been confirmed or denied by any law enforcement agency as of early Saturday morning.

KVOA reports:

A Shadow Hills resident tells News 4 Tucson that she witnessed three people being detained during a SWAT operation on Friday night. According to an unconfirmed report by a neighbor, another person shot himself in the head.

This comes after a SWAT situation occurred in the Shadow Hills neighborhood on Feb. 13. A man and a woman were detained at the house, and a third person was detained in a traffic stop, according to sources close to the investigation.

A neighbor also spoke to Kevin Posobiec of Human Events, making the same claim.

It is unclear if he spoke to the same neighbor or an additional one.

Keep reading

Arizona AG suggests state’s self-defense laws allow residents to shoot masked ICE agents

Arizona Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said during an interview that residents could fire upon ICE agents who are masked if they feel they are in danger due to the state’s laws on self-defense.

Mayes explained that Arizona has a “Stand Your Ground” law that allows people to use lethal force if they believe their life is in danger.

“It’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks,” Mayes said during an interview with 12News.

She said that the “Stand Your Ground” law in Arizona allows residents to use lethal force if they feel like their life is in jeopardy.

“And we have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force,” Mayes said.

Keep reading

REVEALED: Here is the Pivotal Error the Democrat Pima County Sheriff Made that Hampered the Investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s Alleged Abduction for Several Hours

The Democrat sheriff running the investigation into the disappearance of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, made a critical error due to his own ego, which has hampered the investigation.

The Daily Mail reported on Friday that the Pima County Sheriff’s Office failed to launch its Cessna aircraft, equipped with high-resolution thermal-imaging cameras, for several hours.

This was reportedly due to a staffing shortage and lack of pilots, thanks to Sheriff Chris Nanos.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Deputies Association president, Sgt. Aaron Crossm, told The Daily Mail that possible pilots for the aircraft were moved to another unit before Nancy’s disappearance.

Fox News secured a statement that the pilot of Pima County’s high-tech search aircraft had been disciplined following an argument with Nanos. He was reassigned to street patrol as a punishment despite appealing the decision to the sheriff.

As a result, the aircraft’s takeoff was delayed by several hours after Guthrie was reported missing around noon Sunday.

“Three hours in a search for a vulnerable adult is an eternity,” a law enforcement source told Fox News.

The aircraft was eventually launched at 5 pm.

The Pima County Deputies Organization criticized the decision to reassign the pilot and noted that it was part of a pattern of failed leadership decisions by Nanos.

While failing to launch the aircraft on time was the biggest error Nanos was responsible for, there was another inexcusable one during the search for Nancy Guthrie.

According to the Arizona Republic, Nanos admitted that his department released Guthrie’s home as a crime scene too quickly, then returned days later to recover additional evidence.

Nanos said that the scene should have remained secured longer, and other agencies should have been called in earlier.

Keep reading

Third U.S. State Introduces Legislation Designating mRNA Injections as Biological Weapons of Mass Destruction

Tennessee State Senator Janice Bowling has just filed Senate Bill 1949, the “mRNA Bioweapons Prohibition Act,” prohibiting the manufacture, acquisition, possession, or distribution of mRNA injections and products—punishable as a Class B felony under Tennessee’s weapons of mass destruction statute.

Just last week, Arizona Representative Rachel Jones Keshel introduced HB 2974, amending existing statutes to designate modified mRNA injections as biological agents and weapons of mass destruction, and that their manufacture, possession, or distribution may be prosecuted as terrorism, carrying penalties up to life imprisonment if a violation results in death.

Credit to Dr. Joseph Sansone for drafting the “mRNA Bioweapons Prohibition Act,” now filed in three states.

There are now multiple legislators, international bodies, and peer-reviewed scientific publications declaring that mRNA injections constitute biological or technological weapons of mass destruction:

It’s only a matter of time before these dangerous products are outlawed.

Keep reading

Savannah Guthrie’s mom’s disappearance now being investigated as crime: ‘She did not leave on her own’

The mysterious disappearance of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mom is now being investigated as a crime, authorities said Monday — citing “suspicious” circumstances at the 84-year-old woman’s home.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen around 9:45 p.m. Saturday at her million-dollar residence in the rural Catalina Foothills area near Tucson, where officials said they found a “very concerning” scene — and some of the grandma’s key personal items were reportedly left behind, including life-saving medicine.

“We know she didn’t just walk out of there. She did not leave on her own,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said at a press conference Monday.

He refused to elaborate further on exactly why cops think a crime was committed, saying, “It would be inappropriate at this time.”

But authorities said they recovered Nancy’s cellphone and are combing through it for possible clues — while a source told the Daily Mail that the missing woman left behind other basic crucial personal items, too.

“Her stuff was left behind at the house: keys, ID, purse, phone, everything,” someone close to the star told the outlet.

The elderly woman also apparently left behind medicine she needs to take daily to survive.

“It’s not a situation where she voluntarily went away because she didn’t take any of the things you would normally take if you voluntarily went out,” the source told the outlet.

Nanos told reporters, “We believe now, after we process that crime scene, that we do, in fact, have a crime scene, that we do, in fact, have a crime, and we’re asking the community’s help.”

Authorities have been searching for the elderly matriarch since she was reported missing by her family late Sunday morning.

Nancy was last seen Saturday night by at least one of her children, who dropped her off at the house, authorities said.

Savannah, who has an older brother and sister, is currently in the Tucson area, officials said.

Keep reading

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs Disavows Attorney General Kris Mayes’ Calls to Murder ICE Agents, Calls for Mayes to Retract Statements

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs recently attempted to distance herself from Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes following a TV interview, where the radical left Attorney General suggested that Arizonans can shoot and kill ICE agents under Arizona’s stand your ground law. 

Mayes, who is up for reelection this November after stealing the 2022 election by just 280 votes from now-Rep. Abe Hamadeh, recently suggested in an interview that you could lawfully shoot and kill ICE agents in Arizona.

“You have these masked Federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks. And we have a stand your ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger, and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force,” Mayes said.

“You’re not allowed to shoot peace officers,” she added. “But how do you know they’re a peace officer?”

Mayes further presented a possible legal defense for anyone who shoots an ICE agent, telling 12 News’s Brahm Resnik, “It becomes, did they reasonably know that they were a peace officer?”

Keep reading