The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the main contractor for the Arizona audit on Maricopa County 2020 election results must hand over documents related to the effort.
American Oversight, a watchdog group, has been looking for documents on counting and auditing the county, which was started because the former President Trump
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The watchdog group had been involved in a legal fight with the Arizona Senate over the public release of the documents, The Associated Press reported.
“Senate defendants, as officers and a public body under the (records law), have a duty to maintain and produce public records related to their official duties,” the judges wrote Thursday, according to The Arizona Republic. “This includes public records created in connection with the audit of an independent government agency, authorized by the legislative branch of the state government and conducted by Senate agents.”
The judges wrote in their ruling that government contractors, such as the Florida-based company Cyber Ninjas, are still subject to Arizona’s public records laws, which Republicans had argued against.
“The requested records are no less public records simply because they are in the possession of a third party, Cyber Ninjas,” they wrote, according to the Republic of Arizona.
A judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court issued a similar ruling in which he told the Arizona Senate he had to publish the records by Aug. 31, the AP noted; however, the state Senate later appealed this decision.
Senate Speaker Karen Fann (R) said the Senate will appeal Thursday’s decision, though she added that the Senate has nothing to hide.
“If that wins, anyone who does business with a municipality would be subject to open registration applications,” Fann said, according to the Republic of Arizona.