Arizona state Republican touted Trump support for trying to ‘prove any fraud’

A state lawmaker in Arizona revealed that former President Trump had reached out to encourage legislators to pursue a partisan audit intended to prove unfounded allegations of election irregularities in the state in the November presidential contest, according to newly released emails.

The trove of emails shows that Trump and Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer at the time, were in frequent touch with the Republican lawmakers. The messages were obtained by the nonprofit legal watchdog group American Oversight through a records request under the Freedom of Information Act and released Friday.

The emails show that Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann (R) was among the most frequent messengers with Trump and Giuliani, saying in one instance that she’d talked with Giuliani “at least 6 times over the past two weeks.”

“I have been in numerous conversations with Rudy over the past weeks trying to get this done. I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud,” she said in another note.

Fann also asked Trump’s team in late November for any evidence it had obtained of “rampant fraud.”

“No suit has been filed nor was a suit filed to contest the certification process,” she wrote. “I also want to get to the bottom of all this.”

Fann recognized in one email to a constituent that Biden won Arizona — marking the first time the Democratic presidential nominee took the state since 1996 — but most of her correspondences focused on fielding and promoting claims of election misconduct in November.

Arizona has swiftly emerged as ground zero for Republicans’ efforts to overturn the results of last year’s presidential race.

Republicans in the state Senate are waging a partisan audit of election results in Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona.

The effort has attracted criticism from Republicans over a lack of transparency, and Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) has panned the effort as riddled with security infractions.

“There’s really nothing going on here that gives any confidence that they’re going to produce a report that is valid. They’re not going to produce results that are going to be able to be replicated,” Hobbs told The Hill. “They don’t know what they’re doing and they didn’t have a clue how long it was going to take them to do this.” 

“Right now, our state government is being run by conspiracy theorists who are more focused on political posturing than getting things done, and that needs to change.”