BREAKING: AZ Taxpayers Pay More Than $550K To Senate's Attorneys During Ongoing Election "Audit"; Not Done Yet

UPDATE, 3:50pm: The State Senate had generally budgeted only $397,000/yr for outside legal services before the past fiscal year. They bumped that up to $704,900, a 77% increase. They may even have gone over that amount - although they may have used some maneuvers to avoid an overage.

We reported earlier this week on the rare trifecta achieved by State Senate President Karen Fann - having the same legal case simultaneously active in the Superior Court, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. The legal bills for the recent ping-ponging appeals and depositions are not yet known.

However, Arizona taxpayers coughed up more than $550,000 last year to pay for the State Senate's legal bills related to their subpoenas, the election "audit", and the ongoing failure to respond to public records requests. More than $505,000 of that went to the two-person law firm made up of Kory Langhofer and Tom Basile.

Statecraft - which also received more than $56,000 from the Republican National Committee in 2021 - accepted payments from the state irregularly throughout the year, but received a whopping check for $259,946.49 on November 30.

In addition, the State Senate paid attorney Alex Kolodin $33,295 for "legal services", and Cyber Ninjas' attorney Jack Wilenchik $17,004, both in October 2021. Although not necessarily for legal services related to the "audit", the Senate also paid attorney Bill Richards' firm more than $100,000. (The Senate has retained Richards in the years prior to the 2020 elections.)

(A sidenote: although you cannot see it in the screenshots above, the 2020-21 payments to Langhofer are attributed to four different budget years between 2018 and 2022. Perhaps state budget experts can explain this.) 

This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. Paul is currently running for a seat in Arizona's House of Representatives.

"AZ Law" includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as trial and appellate courts, etc. AZ Law is founded by Phoenix attorney Paul Weich, and joins Arizona's Politics on the internet. 

AZ Law airs on non-profit Sun Sounds of Arizona, a statewide reading service that provides audio access to printed material for people who cannot hold or read print material due to a disability. If you know someone who could benefit from this 24/7 service, please let them know about member-supported Sun Sounds. And, YOU can donate or listen here. 

Previous episodes of AZ Law can be streamed or downloaded here, or wherever you get your podcasts.