Update: Comment from Mr. Finchem was sought several times including publicly on social media. To this date, no reply or response was provided or received.
John Thaler today released a statement revealing the source of the “anonymous texts” delivered to Representative Joseph Chaplik of the AZ House Ethics Committee. These texts were used as a key Exhibit 5 for justification in the guilty verdict and subsequent expulsion of Liz Harris. In his letter, Thaler accuses Mark Finchem of arranging a meeting between Thaler and investigator Lyle Rapacki. Thaler claims he provided incomplete and out of context text screenshots under a confidentiality agreement saying “The documentation of text communications had been provided to Mr. Rapacki under a confidentiality agreement and only for his own consumption…”
Thaler asserts that the Ethics Committee should have dismissed the complaint and that through a representative, Finchem and Rapacki provided the text messages in an attempt to damage Harris’s reputation and saying “Mr. Chaplik’s statement that I anonymously provided them to his office is false.”
Thaler also alleges that “Mr. Chaplik and the Committee failed to provide the texts to Ms. Harris. Instead, Mr. Chaplik and the Committee shamelessly sought to ambush Ms. Harris. Moreover, despite knowing that the texts were incomplete and out of context, Mr. Chaplik intentionally sought to mislead the Legislature and the public by falsely claiming that the contents of the texts contradicted statements made by Ms. Harris in her written response to the Committee.”
This evidence should have been inadmissible.
Thaler also states that “The presentation that, once again, had only been completed two hours prior to delivery.” and “Chairman Chaplik ignored the (cease and desist) letter and then falsely claimed that he received it after deliberations had concluded. Yet again, Mr. Chaplik’s statement is false.”
Thaler ends the letter saying “The Committee’s actions will be forever tainted by Chairman Chaplik’s actions unless or until he corrects these errors.”
Statement on shameful and unethical actions undertaken by the Ethics Committee regarding Representative Liz Harris. Simply, the fix was in. pic.twitter.com/BuVQ82zSDx
— John Thaler (@Thaleresq) April 21, 2023
This was discussed in length in a video interview Liz Harris recently did with Jovan Pulitzer:
Full Letter:
