GOP Senate candidate funded Arizona audit security — and is working with org behind Sept 18 rally: report

On Friday, The Arizona Republic's Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reported that Jim Lamon, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Arizona, helped pay for security at the controversial partisan GOP-led "audit" of ballots in Maricopa County — and took credit for pressuring" Arizona state Senate leader Karen Fann to authorize the audit in the first place.

Lamon is not alone — numerous Republican operatives have helped financially supplement the Arizona audit, even as it relies partially on taxpayer dollars. New reporting this week revealed that Cleta Mitchell, a GOP lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump in his failed effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, contributed $1 million to the effort as well.

This comes shortly after The Washington Postreported that Lamon, a solar company executive with a financial stake in a number of right-wing causes, is also bankrolling the "Justice for J6" rally, a D.C. gathering scheduled for September 18 to protest the pre-trial confinement of some of the participants in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Authorities fear that the September 18 rally could be a gathering point for violent right-wing extremists to clash with Capitol Police once again. As a safety precaution, law enforcement is considering re-erecting the barrier around the Capitol complex that went up in response to the January 6 insurrection.

The Arizona audit, which concluded in recent weeks, has become infamous for pursuing conspiracy theories, including searching for bamboo fibers in ballots they hope to prove were forgeries from Asia.