PHOENIX — An activist group with Democrat leanings is suing Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb for failing to respond to multiple requests for public records.
Legal papers filed Wednesday in Pinal County Superior Court contend the sheriff and the county have ignored five separate requests from American Oversight for documents about the sheriff’s communications with organizations and individuals about various issues. These include documents related to security and integrity of the 2020 elections and a June 2022 immigration reform rally in Hereford.
But attorney Jared Keenan of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing American Oversight, said the county and Lamb, who is currently a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, also has not provided documents related to “the so-called ‘constitutional sheriffs’ movement, which asserts authority to refuse to enforce any law a sheriff deems unjust or unconstitutional.”
“American Oversight’s requests specifically seek communications between defendant Lamb and external entities which falsely claim widespread voter fraud and undermine public confidence in election administration,” Keenan wrote.
What the organization also wants, he said, are any records of Lamb attending “anti-immigrant and constitutional sheriffs events.”
“The records sought have potential to shed light on defendant Lamb’s involvement in provoking distrust in elections, promoting anti-immigrant policies, and adopting policies espoused by the constitutional sheriffs movement,” Keenan said.
There was no immediate response from Lamb, either through his county office or his Senate campaign.
According to the lawsuit, the organization’s requests go as far back as October 2020. To date, it says, there has been no response.
Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director of American Oversight, said there is a need for production of the records.
“Sheriff Lamb’s connections with those who have falsely claimed widespread voter fraud are part of a concerning trend of law enforcement cozying up with the election denial movement,” she said in a prepared statement. “Similarly, his attendance at anti-immigration and constitutional sheriffs events reflects a disturbing level of extremism.”
Chukwu said the sheriff and the county have “flagrantly disregarded” their legal obligations under the state’s Public Record Law.
“The people have a right to know how his office is operating and using county resources,” she said.
Lauren Beall, a staff attorney at ACLU, echoed that sentiment.
“Like all government officials, he is held accountable to the public under Arizona’s public records law and must promptly provide records when they are requested,’’ she said in her own statement.
“Instead, Sheriff Lamb has ignored requests repeatedly,” Beall continued. “Democracy dies behind closed doors and we will not allow his failure to comply with the law go unchecked.”
The first batch of records sought, the ones going back to 2020, seek any orders or directives sent by federal law enforcement to Lamb, Chief Deputy Matthew Thomas, and Bryan Harrell and Matthew Hedrick, both deputy chiefs. It then seeks any orders or directives sent by any of them to sheriff’s personnel or volunteers regarding any “investigations, evaluations, reviews, or probes into cases of potential election fraud or voter fraud.”
Another set of records seeks information on Lamb’s attendance at an “End the Biden Border Crisis Rally” in Hereford in June 2021 sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, as well as communications related to that event.
There also are requests for communications with the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank that promotes the “return to limited government.”
And there is a broad demand for any communications sent by Lamb going back to Dec. 1, 2022, with words like ‘’constitutional sheriffs,” “county supremacy” and various names.
American Oversight, in a press release announcing the lawsuit, said the request for the information is justified.
“Lamb has emerged as a key figure in the far-right constitutional sheriffs movement and its efforts to cast doubt on U.S. election integrity,” the statement says. “The complaint seeks a range of public records that could shed light on Lamb’s election denial and anti-immigration activities.”
Lamb was the first Republican to announce for U.S. Senate last year, even before incumbent Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat who had reregistered as a political independent, had announced she would not seek reelection.
His main foe is former TV anchor Kari Lake who is so far leading him in the polls. Also running is Elizabeth Reye.
The winner will face off against Congressman Ruben Gallego, the only Democrat in the race.
This isn’t the first foray by American Oversight into Arizona politics and issues. It was the first to publish the fake electoral certificates produced by Republicans who claimed that Donald Trump had won the popular vote in Arizona in 2020 and they were the people entitled to cast the state’s 11 electoral votes for him.
Even before that, American Oversight forced the release of documents from what was billed as an “audit” of the 2020 election ordered by then-Senate President Karen Fann.
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