Arizona GOP in chaos after election deniers accuse them of taking Mexican cartel money: report

The Arizona Republican Party is turning on one another over a new set of conspiracy theories from election deniers that politicians and officials all over the state — including some of the Republicans themselves — are on the payroll of Mexican drug cartels, reported the Huffington Post on Tuesday.

"Even after getting washed out in the midterms, state Republicans can’t quit these outlandish theories — and now, it has thrown the party into chaos," reported Matt Shuham. "For the past two weeks, Republicans have faced wild accusations of bribery, money laundering and election fixing — from their own supporters. Their conspiracy theories involve a cast of bad guys ranging from a Mexican drug cartel to the 'Mormon mafia.'"

"The allegations are all thanks to John Thaler and Jacqueline Breger," said the report. "He is a lawyer with a suspended license; she is a Farmers Insurance agency owner and Thaler’s girlfriend and investigative partner. State Rep. Liz Harris invited the largely unknown couple to give a half-hour of unsworn testimony before a joint hearing of the state House and Senate’s election committees on Feb. 23, which, as Harris said during the hearing, was meant to 'figure out what it is we need to do to ensure that the voters of Arizona are confident for all future elections.'"

During this hearing, Breger went way off topic and accused the lawmakers, along with state judges and Maricopa County election officials, of taking cartel bribes. “Given that Arizona is a border state and that drug smuggling and human trafficking is a billion-dollar business, it would appear that having our elected and appointed officials ensure that the cartel enterprise remains open for business would be paramount,” she said. She went on to allege this was all tied to a scheme by Thaler's ex-mother-in-law to falsify property deeds on single-family homes as a way of facilitating the laundering of cartel money to Arizona politicians, and newly-elected Gov. Katie Hobbs is in on the whole thing — all without a shred of evidence.

According to the report, the hearing made Breger and Thaler "instant celebrities" with far-right conspiracy theorists — but because they implicated several Republican lawmakers, including state Sen. Wendy Rogers, herself an avowed conspiracy theorist, the Arizona GOP is finally starting to turn on election deniers.

"Rogers, a hard-right Republican who in the past has allied herself with a white nationalist and called for the construction of 'more gallows' — released a statement noting that no one Breger had named actually faced any criminal charges, adding, 'this was not the appropriate venue to discuss what could potentially be criminal activity,'" said the report. Meanwhile, Arizona GOP House Speaker Ben Toma "called the hearing 'disgraceful fringe theater' and said [state Rep. Liz] Harris had invited 'unsubstantiated and defamatory allegations' into the legislature. And state Senate President Warren Petersen (R) said that while state Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli (R) had asked to review witness material before the hearing, Breger’s 80-page report hadn’t been included in the documents — and that Borelli wouldn’t have allowed it if he’d seen it."

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