By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Former Supreme Court Justice Andrew Gould has been appointed special counsel to lead the Arizona Senate GOP’s investigation into pay-to-play allegations against Gov. Katie Hobbs.
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In their announcement Monday, the GOP state lawmakers said that Gould’s appointment “strengthens the investigation with independent legal oversight.”
The investigation will also now be led by the Senate Committee on Appropriations, which scrutinizes state spending, a move that the GOP chair, Sen. David Farnsworth, said “does not narrow the issues under investigation.”
Last week, Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman, who chairs the Senate Government Committee, announced the new investigation into Hobbs, after Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes cleared the governor of criminal wrongdoing last month.
The decision to appoint an independent counsel and move the investigation to a different committee comes as Hoffman faces scrutiny over his consulting work for Hobbs’s GOP challenger for governor, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, and his company’s spending in support of Biggs’ campaign.
Hobbs has been accused of a pay-to-play scheme with Sunshine Residential Homes after The Arizona Republic reported that the group home company contributed to her inaugural fund and the Arizona Democratic Party, and later received a 30% payment increase.
Mayes in August closed her office’s investigation into the allegations, saying that they did not uncover “any evidence of the necessary quid pro quo to support a bribery charge.”
Hobbs denies any wrongdoing, saying she wasn’t involved in the decision to grant the increase. She and Mayes slammed Hoffman’s investigation as a political stunt.
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The Senate is expected to hold a hearing on the matter. It also plans to publish investigation’s findings in a written report and make recommendations to the legislature for reforms.
Arizona House Republicans launched their own investigation earlier this year, hiring an outside counsel from Missouri.
Republican Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and the Auditor General’s Office are also conducting ongoing investigations.
Gould served as an Arizona Supreme Court justice from 2016 to 2021, appointed by GOP Gov. Doug Ducey. He’s also served as an Arizona Court of Appeals judge, a Yuma County Superior Court judge, and a former prosecutor in Maricopa and Yuma counties. He also ran for Arizona Attorney General in 2022, but lost in the GOP primary.
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