Republican Arizona official says GOP legislator admitted there was 'nothing to' election fraud allegations

Karen Fann, the Arizona state Senate president and a Republican, has supported the state legislature's "forensic audit" of the 2020 presidential vote in Maricopa County, which was won by President Biden. Fann said earlier this month that the audit is "not about" former President Donald Trump, who continues to baselessly claim that widespread voter fraud — especially in states like Arizona and Georgia — cost him the election. "This is not about overturning the election," Fann added. "This has never been about anything other than election integrity."

But a Republican member of the Maricopa Board of Supervisers named Bill Gates (no, not that Bill Gates) told The New Yorker's Jane Mayer that Fann had previously confided in him that she knew there was "nothing to" the fraud allegations. Mayer writes that Fann then ultimately "buckled under the political pressure and authorized a subpoena of the county's ballots." Fann did not respond to Mayer's request comment. Read Mayer's full report at The New Yorker.

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