See ya later, Liz! (Or maybe not.)
Arizona state Rep. Liz Harris, an election denier and a spreader of the QAnon conspiracy theory, was expelled from the Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday after a bipartisan vote booted her for using a hearing to spread conspiracy theories about fellow Arizona officials being involved in crime.
The Republican, who in November was elected to the GOP-controlled Legislature for the first time, served three months before being kicked out.
A report from the Arizona House Ethics Committee found that Harris had engaged in “disorderly behavior” in February, when she invited a local insurance agent to testify before a joint committee of House and Senate members to falsely accuse multiple Arizona officials of taking bribes from a Mexican drug cartel to affect the outcomes of the 2020 and 2022 elections. The agent, Jacqueline Breger, also accused the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of controlling government agencies and being involved in money laundering.
One of the lawmakers falsely accused of taking bribes was House Speaker Ben Toma, a Republican who introduced the resolution to expel Harris. Here’s how The Arizona Republic newspaper described Breger’s Feb. 23 testimony:
In the 41-minute presentation at the joint House and Senate Election Committee hearing in February, Scottsdale insurance agent Jacqueline Breger shocked officials with accusations that Gov. Katie Hobbs, House Speaker Ben Toma, lawmakers, judges, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and others conspired with a Mexican drug cartel and received bribes through a scheme using property deeds.
Breger failed to mention that two women she claimed were key players in the scheme were the ex-wife and former mother-in-law of her boyfriend, John Thaler, a lawyer with a suspended license, who was the source of the claims. Thaler had previously outlined the same bribery scheme in court proceedings related to this divorce and child custody case; two…
Read the full article here