We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), represented by Kari Lake’s former attorney Bryan Blehm, filed a lawsuit last week against outgoing Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, demanding records related to Richer allegedly attempting to get a conservative Arizona State University (ASU) professor fired and disciplined by the State Bar of Arizona. WPAA requested an email between Richer and the States United Democracy Center (SUDC), concerned that the far-left activist group was aiding Richer in his attempt to get Aaron Ludwig fired.
The complaint asserted, “On July 31, 2022, Defendant Richer, acting as Maricopa County Recorder, sent an email to the Directors of ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice seeking to have a faculty associate terminated from ASU for sharing a Tweet. … Defendant’s email also shows that the Recorder, in his capacity as Maricopa County Recorder, intended to seek sanctions against the faculty member through the State Bar of Arizona as the faculty member was also an attorney licensed to practice law in Arizona.”
The complaint included a copy of the email that Richer sent to ASU about Ludwig, who previously worked in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office as section chief responsible for prosecuting racketeering and asset forfeiture to dismantle organized crime and nine years as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge pro tem. He currently teaches criminal law, white-collar crime, and organized crime at ASU.
Richer said in his email to ASU, “I ask that you assess if he is fit to be a part of the ASU faculty. He is a regular purveyor of election disinformation and misinformation.” Richer singled out posts on X by Ludwig, which criticized the behavior of two Maricopa County Elections employees
WPAA said Richer’s complaint was “an abuse of the Recorder’s authority” and that he was not entitled to “serve as the gateway to the First Amendment during a statewide election.”
WPAA said that attorney Sam Bo Dul, who worked for SUDC, responded to the email. WPAA requested a copy of the email but said the version produced was heavily redacted.
Dul previously served as general counsel for the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, including while her employer, Katie Hobbs, was running for governor. After SUDC hired Dul, she represented Hobbs in her election litigation. When Hobbs began serving as governor, Dul became her General Counsel.
WPAA explained why it wanted the email.
“As this email was obviously in possession of an attorney who had recently run the State’s election apparatus and was apparently working on behalf of Katie Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign, it is imperative that the people of the State of Arizona be able to see what communications were taking place by those with state power or the semblance thereof in the midst of the 2022 election cycle aimed at censoring conservative speech,” it said.
The group noted that SUDC prepared the legal blueprint for Attorney General Kris Mayes to prosecute the alternate electors for Donald Trump in 2020.
WPAA said Richer refused to turn over the email when they asked for it in a public records request, citing attorney-client work product privilege. However, the complaint pointed out that SUDC is not an attorney for the office, so those privileges would not apply. “[T]he email in question being requested is communication with a political organization named States United Democracy Center, not the attorney of record for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office,” WPAA said.
