Judge Orders AZ Republicans to Pause Audit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Arizona Superior Court judge has ordered a Republican-led audit to temporarily pause after the Arizona Democratic Party sued for a permanent stop to the audit proceeding. The Republican state Senate hired outside firms to conduct an additional, unnecessary audit after a February audit found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. The suit claims that these outside firms would have access to confidential voter information that a previous court ruling made clear the state Senate was responsible for protecting and securing. Now, they have handed this information over to third parties, including Cyber Ninjas Inc., a firm led by a documented stop-the-steal conspiracy theorist.
Judge Christopher Coury ordered the audit to be temporarily paused in light of these concerns, starting at the end of the day today. It will be allowed to continue on Monday after a hearing if there is no further decision to extend the pause.