BREAKING: Republican Legislative Leaders Get Involved In Abe Hamadeh Election Contest, More (READ Filings)

The Arizona Legislature has engaged outside counsel to weigh in on whether sanctions should be assessed in Abe Hamadeh's Election Contest, and whether the judge should grant a new trial. State Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma are asking Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen to include their amici curiae (i.e. "friends of the court") brief discussing the election contest statutes.

Hamadeh, who came up just short in the Attorney General's race against Kris Mayes, failed in his Election Contest. However, he is asking for a new trial in light of the recount resulted in him in gaining a couple of hundred votes in Pinal County.

Petersen and Toma want to argue that the longstanding election contest statutes provide a "rigorous, robust and comprehensive fact-finding process" that should allow the court to grant a new trial in light of the recount and information provided in the dismissed-but-under appeal Kari Lake election contest. (They also give a shout-out to Hamadeh's claim that provisional ballots which Maricopa County determined were not legally countable needs to be explored.

The taxpayers are paying private attorneys Kory Langhofer and Tom Basile for the amici brief.

Judge Jantzen also has agreed to give Hamadeh until February 6 to file a consolidated Reply to the Defendants' several Responses opposing a New Trial.

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

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