Threats to county officials
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office says it is investigating a comment posted this week to the local political website Republican Briefs that threatened the county supervisors with hanging and cited election fraud claims.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a comment posted this week to a local political website that threatened the county supervisors in response to the general election results.
The comment on Republican Briefs, a website and private newsletter, references building a hangman’s scaffolding outside the Capitol and says “some of the supervisors and others involved in our elections have earned an old fashion neck tie party.”
Frosty Taylor, who runs the Republican Briefs website, removed the comment on Thursday after The Arizona Republic reached out.
The brief, in the opinions section of the site, was posted the day before rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress attempted to certify the results of November’s election. Congress members were in the midst of debating Arizona’s results when they were evacuated because of the rioting.
Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office are investigating the comment, along with “a large amount of these types of posts that are similar in nature,” according to Sgt. Joaquin Enriquez, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
“We will continue to monitor the merit of the posts,” Enriquez said.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, a Republican-controlled board that helps oversee elections, has faced its share of pressure in the wake of the election. Trump supporters have called on the board to complete additional independent audits of the re
sults, claiming widespread fraud but producing no evidence. The court has dismissed several related lawsuits.
Fields Moseley, a county spokesperson, said that some supervisors have received added security at various times during the past two months.
Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers said Thursday that the brief is one of many threats he and the supervisors have received recently, starting with implementation of a countywide mask mandate as COVID-19 surged in June and then with the election.
Sellers said maybe he should take the threats more seriously than he does, but he is more focused on moving the county forward.
“I can’t have all my focus on crazy people,” he said. “I need to be focused on moving us forward.”
Brief claims election fraud along with threat
The brief was attributed to John Powelson, who identifies himself elsewhere online as a former Republican district chairperson.
In the comment, Powelson says he believes the election system was “manipulated” and “votes were taken from Trump and given to Biden” in Arizona and other states.
Powelson did not return a phone call or email for comment. On another post on Arizona Freedom Alliance’s website, Powelson identifies himself as a former chairperson for legislative district 13, a district which represents parts of western Glendale, Litchfield Park, Buckeye, and parts of Yuma.
This isn’t the first time someone has threatened to hang an Arizona politician.
In 2015, Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the pro-Constitution organization Oath Keepers was recorded saying that U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., should be tried for treason, convicted and “hung by the neck until dead.”
Taylor, who runs the Republican Briefs website and is a former spokesperson for the county Republican Party, said Thursday that she reads reader comments before she posts them.
“I thought he was just blowing off steam,” she said in an email.
When posting opinion comments, she includes a disclaimer that says the comments “are not necessarily those of the briefs.”
Gates: Leaders must not stand for ‘hateful, violence inciting rhetoric’
The vitriol toward the supervisors has extended to social media.
When Supervisor Bill Gates tweeted on Wednesday about the rioting at the U.S. Capitol, the replies were harsh.
“Our great nation has a long history of peaceful transfers of power,” Gates wrote. “We are better than this. Shame on those who led us to this disgraceful point. Cooler heads must prevail.”
Those who responded on social media included Nicole Garcia, a candidate for Phoenix City Council in March’s runoff election and a Trump supporter.
“Shut the hell up,” Garcia wrote. “Shame on YOU for covering up blatant voter fraud! I’m circulating a petition to have you recalled you FRAUD.”
Gates said Thursday that the replies to his tweet “represent some of those in my district on the fringes.”
“I believe the majority of my constituents want representatives who use responsible rhetoric and who can be the ‘adult in the room’ when dealing with the tough issues,” he said.
He said he has seen the rhetoric worsen in the last year, and “certain elected leaders” have allowed it to fester.
“There are many things which have caused today’s political rhetoric: social media, distrust in mainstream media, and others,” he said, “But the one cause that has the easiest fix is we must have strong elected and appointed leaders in this country that do not stand for hateful, violence inciting rhetoric.”