PRESCOTT VALLEY, Arizona. – Many Republican lawyers in Arizona say they and others who have been involved in the party’s election process in the past are keeping their distance this time around, largely because of Senate candidate Kari Lake’s history of alleged fraud.
Earlier this month, Corey Langhofer resigned as senior legal counsel for former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee’s “election integrity” operation in Arizona. Now, he is among more than a dozen Republican attorneys in the state who have been part of the GOP’s Arizona judicial team in past election cycles, including in 2020 and 2022, but do not intend to participate in its efforts this fall.
This is a dynamic that creates uncertainty around the party much-hyped legitimate efforts A few weeks after Election Day in a key state in the battle for the White House and Senate.
Langhofer filed the initial legal challenge the Trump campaign lost in the state in 2020 and represented the Arizona state Senate in its session. an audit by the discredited “Cyber Ninja”. declined to comment to NBC News about the conduct of that year’s election.
Three GOP lawyers who were involved in previous Arizona campaigns and spoke on condition of anonymity to speak publicly about their reluctance to engage this cycle told NBC News that there is concern, especially with the trend from Lake, who continues to challenge his 2022 loss. the gubernatorial race, to cast doubt on the upcoming elections – prompting the trial and the questioning process. One of the lawyers assessed it as “fatigue”.
“Cary is creating this environment that is inhospitable to very reasonable people,” said one Arizona Republican attorney who has participated in past rounds.
Arizona has been a hotbed for GOP-inspired conspiracy theories about a stolen election since Trump lost the state and nationally in the 2020 presidential race.
“There is just such a perception [Republican lawyers] They’re not being proactive enough,” a second lawyer said of preventing suspected fraud. “But what’s enough? If you can’t identify something, then what do you do?”
Following Langhofer’s departure, the Trump campaign announced last week the hiring of Harmeet Dhillon, a member of the Republican National Committee and a high-powered California lawyer, to relocate to Arizona in the final weeks of the campaign. Dhillon is not licensed to practice law in Arizona, but a source familiar with the effort said he would be expected to hire a local attorney.
“I don’t know who’s going to be in the war room or what other Arizona lawyers are going to be there,” said a third Republican lawyer in Arizona, who is among those not participating in this year’s legal effort. “I really don’t know what happened.”
Each of the three lawyers who spoke to NBC News said they would be willing to help Arizona’s legal operation in the coming month if legal concerns arise that affect the election.
After Langhofer left, Lake’s senior campaign adviser, Caroline Wren, chided the RNC and the Trump campaign. In an article on X “For telling us they have the ‘largest election integrity program’ yet not a single attorney on the ground in Arizona.”
In April, the RNC announced it would launch a massive “election integrity” operation With 100,000 lawyers and volunteers across the country to prevent fraud ahead of the November elections.
“Could it be that we’re all blathering on about a bogus ‘Election Integrity’ program by the @gop that doesn’t actually exist?” Wren wrote in the post. “Yes, and frankly, more believable than possible.”
Days later, the RNC hired Dhillon to oversee the state’s legislative front. Dhillon doesn’t have a deep history with the state, though he did work for Lake during election week in 2022 when the then-governor candidate blasted Maricopa County election officials for mechanical problems with some vote center printers that led to longer wait times at several precincts. .
The Trump and Lake campaigns are confident he will make a decision on whether to file any potential lawsuits in the coming weeks, according to multiple sources involved in the discussions surrounding the decision to refer Dhillon. Still, the Arizona Republican Party is now counting on party chairwoman Gina Svoboda to start a dialogue with state and county election officials. Although Svoboda previously worked in the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, he does not have a law degree.
Svoboda said in his statement that he trusts Dhillon.
“Harmeet is ready to lead the fight,” he said. “We are leading the way with an unprecedented commitment to Election Integrity,” he said.
Wren wrote in a statement to NBC News: “The Lake Curry campaign has full confidence in Harmeet Dhillon and Gina Svoboda to lead the Election Integrity efforts in Arizona, and we are very pleased with the outcome.”
Lake’s recent election legal efforts are still causing headaches for Arizona Republicans. Earlier this year, one of Lake’s attorneys, Bryan Blehm, was fined and disbarred. lie to the Arizona Supreme Court while representing Lake’s 2022 election challenges.
The Arizona court must also determine damages as part of Lake’s defamation suit against Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer. given Against him after the 2022 elections. Richer, a Republican, alleged in the lawsuit that Lake “repeatedly and falsely accused Richer of causing Lake’s election loss.”
Part of the legal tension within the party stems from Richer’s discovery that 218,000 Arizona voters never proved their citizenship as part of the voter eligibility process — the result of an apparent clerical error years ago.
Earlier this month, Wren is openly questioned why the Trump campaign hasn’t sued to challenge the eligibility of the “218,000 unverified ‘US citizen’ voters.”
However, the Arizona Republican Party filed an amicus brief with the courts in favor of Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, urging the court to ensure that those voters – many of whom are registered Republicans – have the right to allow them to participate. in this fall’s election.