All around the world are individuals and business vendors who have been stiffed by perennial deadbeat Donald Trump. However, State Representative Mark Finchem (R-LD11) got his payoff. What did Finchem do to get such favorable treatment?
According to Andrew Oxford at AZ Central, the Trump Campaign:
“…reported in its latest financial disclosure that it made a payment on Dec. 18 to “Mrk Finchem PLLC” and the address provided for the company is the lawmaker’s home. The campaign labeled the expense as “recount: legal consulting.”
There are two problems with this public disclosure for Finchem.
- The LD11 State Representative did not declare it on his own financial disclosure forms as required by law. Oops.
- When asked about the expense, Mr. Finchem, according to the Oxford reporting, said:
“….the payment was a reimbursement “for crowd control and security costs” at a meeting he convened at a downtown Phoenix hotel on Nov. 30 with the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, several other Republican legislators, and various people alleging wrongdoing during the election.”
So Finchem has dug a deeper hole for himself because he did not reveal the expense and there is a dispute about what the funds were meant for.
This is in addition to him not cooperating with queries about his part in organizing and participating in the January 6, 2021, Trumpist domestic terror attack on the nation’s Capitol. More than 40 ethics complaints have been filed against Finchem for his alleged participation in the insurrection.
According to reporting by Oxford, LD 29 State Representative Cesar Chavez, the person who has already filed an ethics complaint on Finchem for his part on January 6, 2021, said:
“I would hope it at least puts a question in people’s heads — who and what was that for?”
Jessica Post of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee released a statement that read:
“The people of Arizona deserve an explanation, and Representative Finchem should resign for being paid to overthrow the will of the voters. But let’s be clear: hundreds of Republican state legislators worked to discredit or overturn the presidential election results, and they are all complicit in this unprecedented assault on our democracy.”
It seems like the members of the Arizona State House Ethics Committee are going to be busy the day after the Superbowl handling renewed calls for a prompt and comprehensive investigation of Finchem and his actions.
They need to do their jobs and show the residents of the Grand Canyon State that people will be held to account if they violated the people’s trust and attacked the Constitution and American Ideal.
