Republicans on a House interim committee released a report Wednesday recommending the impeachment of Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes and accused her of committing “malfeasance in office.”
The 102-page report signed by Republicans from the House Ad Hoc Committee on Executive Oversight details the investigation, which began in April, of Mayes’ actions in office.
In a letter to Speaker of the House Ben Toma, R-Peoria, committee chairwoman Rep. Jacqueline Parker, R-Mesa, wrote that Mayes has committed “impeachable offenses” and accused the attorney general of altering the Mohave County Board of Supervisors November 2023 vote to conduct a hand count of the 2024 election by threatening supervisors with criminal and civil penalties.
“The people of Arizona deserve better from the state’s chief legal officer,” Parker said in a House GOP news release. “I am deeply frustrated and disappointed by Attorney General Mayes’ lack of cooperation with our requests for more information and records concerning the many allegations that came to the Committee’s attention.”
Mayes called the committee a “sham” in an April press conference responding to the committee’s investigation of her. She declined to participate or testify to the committee in its two hearings Republicans held.
Committee members also accused Mayes of using her office to attack political opponents after she filed a lawsuit in March 2023 against Cochise County for delegating the county board of supervisors’ election duties to the county recorder.
House GOP Director of Communications Andrew Wilder said in a text that the House hasn’t determined if an impeachment resolution will be introduced for a vote yet. He said Toma is currently reviewing the committee’s report.
An impeachment vote would take a simple majority in the House to send the matter to the Senate, where the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would preside over impeachment trials. An impeachment conviction and removal from office would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which is unlikely with the slim 16-14 majority Republicans hold in the chamber.
“The investigative report released today by the sham House ad hoc oversight committee isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. This partisan stunt by far-right members of the Legislature makes a mockery of real legislative oversight,” Mayes’ spokesman, Richie Taylor, said in a written statement. “It is based on nothing more than political and policy disagreements that legislators like Rep. Jacqueline Parker have with Attorney General Mayes.”
The state Senate hasn’t held an impeachment trial since former Republican Gov. Evan Meacham was removed from office in 1988. The Senate convicted Meacham of obstruction of justice and misusing government funds.
Sen. Brian Fernandez, D-Yuma, said he isn’t taking the House committee’s report of Mayes seriously. Fernandez filed an ethics complaint against Sens. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek; and Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, for their role and felony indictments in the 2020 “alternate electors” scheme that sought to give the state’s electoral votes to Donald Trump.
“This is exactly why I asked for Hoffman and Kern to be removed from their committees and why I asked for an ethics hearing,” Fernandez said.
Republicans on the House ad hoc committee have also taken issue with Mayes issuing a consumer alert towards crisis pregnancy centers. The committee’s report states the consumer alert, published by a Reproductive Rights Unit that the legislature didn’t authorize funding for, is deceptive and uses fraud to misrepresent crisis pregnancy centers.
Other objections Republicans raised with Mayes in the report include her refusal to defend Arizona’s Save Women’s Sports Act in court and her use of town halls to investigate a potential public nuisance lawsuit related to groundwater use.
Republicans may also target funding for the attorney general’s office. The committee recommended reducing the office’s budget to defund units not authorized by the legislature. Another recommendation was to reduce Mayes’ budget by the amount the legislature has spent on legal fees related to state laws Mayes won’t defend, like Arizona’s “Save Women’s Sports Act.”
Mayes said her decision to not defend the state over that challenged law was due to her views on the law not matching with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, but Horne and GOP legislative leaders have used state funds to hire their own attorneys.
Parker said she is also disappointed House Democrats didn’t participate in the committee’s activities.
Despite the Attorney General’s lack of transparency with the Committee, we have seen and heard enough,” Parker said. “I hope all House members will thoroughly review the Committee’s report and findings and agree to impeach Attorney General Mayes and consider other measures outlined in our report to prevent future weaponization of the AG’s office.”
House Assistant Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos, D-Laveen, has called the committee a “childish” and “partisan” exercise.
“Predictably, a kangaroo court has delivered a partisan hack-job report. This is politics at its worst, and retaliation for holding corrupt politicians accountable,” De Los Santos said. “Attorney General Mayes has done a stellar job of going after criminals, protecting consumers, fighting for reproductive freedom and defending democracy. That's why Republicans are on the attack."
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