Arizona Attorney General Claims Investigation of Governor Hobbs

On Friday, Attorney General Kris Mayes sought to open a criminal investigation into a child care provider with ties to Gov. Katie Hobbs, a matter that prompted three agencies to launch investigations.

Mayes sent letters to Maricopa County District Attorney Rachel Mitchell and the Arizona State Auditor General effectively asking them to resign.

“It would be neither appropriate nor in the State’s interest to conduct parallel investigations into the same matter,” Mayes, a Democrat, wrote to Mitchell, a Republican. “In addition, a separate proceeding conducted by the MCAO could jeopardize the integrity of the criminal investigation my office will now conduct.”

Mayes told the auditor general, who had contacted Mitchell’s office about cooperating with an audit, that “the Attorney General’s Office does not require the assistance of your office in its investigation.”

It was not immediately clear whether the letters resolved a dispute over authority to investigate or whether they simply served to exacerbate political divisions.

Neither Mitchell’s office nor Republican Rep. Matt Gress of Phoenix, who chairs the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, immediately commented on the letter asking for support for Mitchell’s investigation.

The relationship between Mayes and Mitchell was at times fragile, with tensions arising over their differing views on whether Arizona is willing to execute death row inmates and who has jurisdiction in abortion cases.

The exact scope of Mayes’ investigation is not yet clear, and it comes amid a political climate of deep skepticism at the state Capitol. A week ago, a group of Republicans in the House of Representatives accused Mayes of selectively enforcing state laws and other abuses and recommended that she be removed from office.

Arizona Republican report:calls for the impeachment of Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes. She calls it a “farce”

Now her office is in the public spotlight as it investigates a group linked to Arizona’s Democratic governor.

The Arizona Republic exposed the ties between Hobbs and Sunshine Residential Homes in an article that documented how Sunshine Residential received more state funds through its contract work with the Arizona Department of Child Safety, even as it launched a new political fundraising campaign to benefit Hobbs’ inauguration and the Arizona Democratic Party.

Sunshine Residential operates about 30 group homes for children taken into state care. It donated $400,000 to Hobbs’ inauguration and the Arizona Democratic Party in 2022 and 2023. Sunshine Residential is a for-profit company led by CEO Simon Kottoor.

Hobbs’ campaign delivers records according to Republic reporting

Part of Sunshine Residential Homes’ political spending came in the form of a $100,000 donation to Hobbs’ inauguration fund.

The Katie Hobbs Inaugural Fund was established as a nonprofit organization not required by law to disclose its donors. It identified donors, including Sunshine Residential Homes, in January 2023, despite facing public pressure to do so. The dates of those donations were not disclosed, only the donor and the dollar amount.

Documents later provided by Hobbs’ campaign attorneys in response to a lawmaker’s request for a list of deposits into the inaugural fund dated Sunshine Residential’s donation to Feb. 9, 2023. That was three days after DCS denied Sunshine Residential a rate increase. DCS eventually approved a larger increase in May 2023, according to department documents.

After the Republic article appeared, Nicole DeMont, Hobbs’ chief political strategist and head of the inaugural fund, said she had “additional information” and provided a copy of the check from Sunshine Residential.

The check is dated Dec. 15, 2022, a month after Hobbs’ election and weeks before she is sworn in. DeMont provided a letter from San Francisco-based Amalgamated Bank dated Friday saying a “bank error” caused the funds to not be credited until Feb. 9, 2023.

DeMont said Friday that the date the check was credited to the bank was irrelevant and any suggestion that it was an administrative action was “completely false.”

DeMont declined to comment before the article was published in the Republic.

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