Host Stephen K. Bannon welcomed The Star News Network’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Arizona Sun-Times, Michael Patrick Leahy, on Friday morning’s War Room: Battleground to talk about the DDoS attack at The Sun Times late Wednesday evening and to give his predictions on whether or not Maricopa County will certify their elections.
Bannon: Michael, first off, I want to talk about you putting out an investigative report about this PAC. We got about a minute. Tell me about this PAC, and then why did The Arizona Sun Times and all your sites get taken down by DDoS attacks? That’s quite odd, sir. We don’t believe in conspiracies, but there are no coincidences. Tell me what’s going on.
Leahy: Good morning, Steve. Thanks for having me on. Yes, late Wednesday night, we published a story documenting what we could about the highly partisan PAC that Stephen Richer has put together and organized and received a lot of money from Democrat donors to operate.
It’s called the Pro-Democracy Republican PAC. And in that, we documented the unusual nature of that PAC. It was designed for the purpose of backing Republicans who did not challenge the results of the 2020 election, clearly designed to oppose candidates like Kari Lake and Mark Fincham and other state and local candidates. So we put that story out.
We showed that the only documentation that we have for that PAC ends October 27th, which was two weeks before the election. We don’t know what happened with that after that. He got $20,000 from Francis Najafi, a big Democrat donor who’s also given $60,000 for the year.
Bannon: So you put this report out. It’s kind of odd. So help me out here. You’ve launched The Arizona Sun Times. It’s very successful out there. Of all the papers, you’ve got new sites regarding the battleground states from Ohio to Georgia, to Michigan, and all of it.
How do you have a situation where you got to certify an election and you got a guy, Richer, that’s got a PAC that’s opposing the candidates that are now in the fray, and then it’s going to be certified under the signature of Katie Hobbs? How did Arizona get into this situation?
Leahy: Well, it’s a crazy situation. I don’t think Stephen Richer asked anybody’s opinion or permission to form the PAC. It’s questionable at best, and it raises a lot of questions about transparency. We don’t have any information on what he spent the money on subsequent to October 27th.
And his filings with, surprisingly, the Secretary of State’s office are inconsistent. He says in one case he spent $25,000 on polling and $20,000 for unspecified mailing with another PAC. But that PAC shows a different use of those resources. So that’s one question.
The other thing going on there is, as you know, on Wednesday, Kari Lake filed a lawsuit, not an election contest lawsuit, but a lawsuit to compel Maricopa County to produce a bunch of information about Election Day operations.
And then the other very odd thing going on there is Doug Ducey, the governor on the 23rd, congratulated Katie Hobbs as the victor five days before even the certification date. And then Mark Elias your good buddy the Democrat killer attorney tweeted out an atta-boy for him on the 23rd.
Bannon: No, it wasn’t just a congratulations Hobbs. He had her over to the office for a cup of coffee and had numerous photographs and showed them during the transition. Michael Patrick Leahy, as you see it, as the publisher of The Arizona Sun Times, can this election, as it was conducted by the officials in Arizona, is it your belief in your paper’s belief can this be certified, sir?
Leahy: Steve, I’m sorry to say the question isn’t really can it be certified, the question is will it be certified? I believe Monday morning that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will certify Maricopa County and I think most likely the other counties in the state will all follow.
And very quickly, Katie Hobbs will certify it. And then you will go to an election contest. I anticipate that Kari Lake and others will file an election contest. It will go before a superior court in Arizona and it will be five days to present the case that the court should annul the results of that election. That’s how I see it, Steve.
Bannon: Michael Patrick Leahy how do people get to The Arizona Sun Times to follow it? Because it’s an amazing news site. How do people get there?
Leahy: We have two great reporters on the ground there. Rachel Alexander and Neil Jones go to arizonasuntimes.com. And also, you can see our overarching website, thestarnewsnetwork.com. Thanks so much for having me, Steve.
Bannon: They’re one of our partners. Michael Patrick, thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.
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Photo “Michael Patrick Leahy” by Bannons War Room.
