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As Maricopa County faces scrutiny for another third-world election, its communications team is stonewalling The Gateway Pundit yet again.
The Gateway Pundit reported on the frustration during Tuesday’s compromised election, where in-person voters were left driving around town, and Maricopa County allegedly instructed them to vote at closed voting centers. Additionally, Maricopa County’s signature verification cameras were turned off temporarily when early ballots were being processed. One voter described it as the “recurring nightmare” in Maricopa County.
It would appear to this author and others that Maricopa County is now trying to hinder our ability to gather news surrounding this topic.
The local election was only for items including tax measures in participating jurisdictions. But how can we trust them to handle the next Presidential Election if they can’t even handle a small election or take questions from honest media?
Recall that The Gateway Pundit successfully sued Maricopa County for barring our correspondent, Jordan Conradson, from their press room, citing “a real or perceived conflict of interest” and claiming he is “not a bona fide correspondent of repute.” Never mind the far-left dishonest hacks that were approved by Maricopa County. They didn’t want us in their press room, asking about the actual conflicts of interest:
- Soros-funded former Secretary of State Katie Hobbs oversaw and certified her own election for Governor.
- RINO Recorder Stephen Richer ran an anti-MAGA PAC during the election.
- RINO Chairman Bill Gates called for the “humiliation” of Trump-Endorsed candidates at the ballot box leading up to the general election.
- Far-left Supervisor Steve Gallardo served as a co-chair of the Latinos for Katie Hobbs coalition and a member of Hobbs’ transition team.
- Katie Hobbs threatened to sue or prosecute any county official who did not vote to certify her rigged election where 60% of machines failed Republican election day voters.
The people orchestrating elections in Maricopa County have conflicts of interest with candidates, including themselves, and many are up for re-election in 2024. How can they be impartial when they are incumbents, and these errors seem to always favor them or their preferred candidates? Has there ever been an example of “honest mistakes” going the other way? This author can’t find any.
Their content-based restriction against The Gateway Pundit in 2022 came after our reports criticizing the 2020 election, where we released audio tapes so damning to Maricopa County and their rigged elections that former Supervisor Steve Chucri resigned from office. “I’ve had Democrats write me and say they don’t have confidence… I think it was done through dead people voting,” Chucri said of the “multifaceted” and widespread election inconsistencies.
The hostility from Maricopa County has only increased since we embarrassed them, and our reporting led to a Supervisor resigning.
The last thing they could handle was Conradson and RAV correspondent Ben Bergquam in their press conferences following the debacle on election day, where 60% of machines malfunctioned for Republican in-person voters. So, Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies threatened Conradson and Bergquam’s arrest and followed them with a drone away from the election center in Phoenix.
It wasn’t enough for Stephen Richer and Katie Hobbs to collude with Twitter and federal agencies to censor The Gateway Pundit’s factual reporting.
The Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled in our favor, commenting that Maricopa County “can’t be trusted with the First Amendment,” but they still haven’t learned.
The Ninth Circuit panel absolutely skewered Maricopa County for unconstitutionally discriminating against us and our processes.
Via Terri Jo Neff for the Arizona Daily Independent:
At one point, Judge Ryan D. Nelson asked, “why are you using this?” in referring to the press pass criteria. Nelson, a Trump appointee, was then interrupted by Callahan, who pushed back on the county’s claim that its criteria had nothing to do with Conradson’s personality or whether county staff liked the journalist’s work.
“The First Amendment means that we have to hear things, sometimes, that we don’t want to hear,” said Callahan, a GW Bush appointee. “It protects the unpopular speech.”
Callahan told Trullinger that it “just seems like you’ve got county officials here not liking this person and what this person’s saying.” When Trullinger offered a response, stating the county’s interest is with a journalist’s news gathering “process” and not the content, he was interrupted by Nelson.
“I’ve got to be honest. What you’ve just said seems like a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” Nelson stated. “This just goes to the point you guys can’t be trusted with the First Amendment.”
Even Biden appointee, Judge Holly A. Thomas, noted, “It can’t be right that you get to dictate who they talk to, [or] how they go about gathering the news.”
Prior to the Appeals Court ruling, Moseley testified that he “handle[s] probably 90 percent of the questions” for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and other departments. He further stated that he is “not aware” of us ever contacting him for information or comment on a story. Moseley also expressed his opinion that “Mr. Conradson doesn’t present as an ethical journalist who practices with integrity or professionalism,” and “he doesn’t contact us to seek the truth or to seek our response to what an accusation might be.”
In closing, attorneys for Maricopa County agreed with the Judge that The Gateway Pundit was guilty of “nonconformity with the process” used by Maricopa County’s handpicked journalists. Given that Ben Bergquam and Jordan Conradson are the only reporters who were banned from Maricopa County after questioning the integrity of Maricopa County’s elections and their excuses, it would be reasonable to conclude that reporting on fraudulent elections is not in accordance with “the process.”
When we followed “the process” by calling Moseley on Wednesday to ask questions about the recent election and seek the county’s response to accusations of misconduct, the conversation went something like this:
*Some quotes may not be 100% accurate because Moseley would not grant permission to record the call. Conradson took notes during his phone call with Moseley.
Conradson, currently reporting from a two-party consent state, first asked Moseley if he consented to Conradson recording the conversation. Moseley responded, “I do mind. Why don’t we talk first?” which Conradson found odd, considering Fields Moseley is the “Communications Director.” So, Conradson questioned Moseley about his testimony in court, saying that the media should go through him and that Conradson should be doing his due diligence as a reporter to contact officials and get quotes. This is Journalism 101, of course… But how do you quote someone accurately or resolve disputed statements when you are denied the ability to keep an audio record, the most reliable record of exactly what they said?
Moseley then stated that he is not actually who we should be calling when we have questions, and he had five other media requests to get to. This, again, is odd, considering his prior testimony under oath. This is the same guy who testified that we’re not real journalists because we don’t contact the communications director. He appears to contradict his testimony here.
To answer our questions, Moseley provided the contact information for Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer. When Conradson called Liewer on Wednesday, however, she was at Starbucks and said she would call back “in 15 minutes.” After not receiving a callback, Conradson phoned three more times over the next two hours, left multiple messages, and still got no response. Liewer finally responded via email after ignoring two calls, a voicemail, and a text message, stating, “It is my preference that we communicate in writing.”
After some difficulty, delay, and several attempts to get a comment via email, Liewer sent the following statement to The Gateway Pundit.
Per statute, for a vote by mail election, every jurisdiction had to have at least one ballot replacement center within their boundaries. In addition to a ballot replacement center, several jurisdictions also opted to offer ballot drop boxes. The drop box locations and hours of operation were determined by the jurisdictions. On Election Day, every participating jurisdiction had at least one location for a voter to obtain a replacement ballot or drop off their mail-in ballot, that was open from 6 am to 7 pm.
Because Maricopa County Elections was the single administrator for these elections, voters across all participating jurisdictions were able to return their mail-in ballot or obtain a replacement ballot at locations throughout Maricopa County for the duration of the election. Hours of operation for all locations were posted online.
On Election Day, voters were to return their ballot by 7pm, either via ballot replacement center or ballot drop box, and we directed them to visit locations.maricopa.vote to learn more. If someone visited the website at 4:31 or 6:45 on Election Day and looked up the PVUSD ballot drop box, it would have been highlighted in red with the word closed. If they visited before 4:30 that day, it would have noted when the location would close.
We strive to provide as much information as possible, so voters are informed about their options.
Still, she did not answer the questions asked of her: “Why were people sent to locations that were closed to vote on election day? Are you aware of reports that people were driving to 3 or 4 different locations and also being sent to the closed location in PV after [Maricopa County] staff told them to go there?” Instead, she appears to blame the voters. However, as The Gateway Pundit reported, Maricopa County is accused of sending voters to closed locations when reached by phone. Additionally, instructions given by the County explicitly state that you may “visit any voting location no later than 7 p.m. on November 7 to cast a ballot in person.” This sounds like misinformation.
After Fields provided the contact for Liewer, he filled Conradson in on his role with the office and notified us that he wasn’t in the office during Tuesday’s botched election. Unsatisfied with the conversation, Conradson asked again why the communications director for Maricopa County, who testified in court that we should be contacting him, wouldn’t want us to have a record of exactly what he said. Moseley got somewhat nasty, saying something along the lines of, “I’ll be somewhat blunt with you. You write things that aren’t true… I get it; I was a broadcast journalist… You write things without coming to the county for information… you call us liars and criminals without a court ruling,” etc. Moseley also said we “don’t follow the rules.”
What would have been better proof of what he said than a recording? Why do you think he declined to be recorded? Is he planning to lie about what he said? These are all mysteries to this publication.
Of course, Maricopa County’s attorneys also pressed Conradson on the stand last November, asking whether or not he came to the county for information when writing stories that we already have firsthand information about, including records from the County or footage from the County’s own cameras. Why would we speak to the County when they’re going to be uncooperative, tell us that firsthand information is incorrect, call us conspiracy theorists, or call us liars as Fields Moseley did when we followed his free-speech “rules.”
When Conradson pointed out that mainstream media outlets like CNN–who follow the County’s “rules” by giving glory to everything the County officials say–have been calling Trump a criminal for nearly a decade, Moseley could only respond, “I don’t work for CNN.” Still, he did convey that he “get[s] it” while referencing his broadcast journalism career and accusing The Gateway Pundit of lying to our audience…
He also deflected to the failed excuse they used in court, saying that they issued 500 media credentials to media outlets in 2022, including FOX and Newsmax–sources that have gone somewhat quiet on the fraudulent elections. A few moments before this, while giving Conradson the aforementioned description of his role in the office, Fields had mentioned how our reporting on “certain types of information” is noteworthy.
Have they not learned that they cannot discriminate against journalists based on content?
When Conradson confronted the accusations and asked him to point out the lies, Moseley dug through Conradson’s Twitter for several moments to find something he disagreed with. Clearly, the government disagreeing with something is grounds to say it’s a lie, according to these people. How many times has the government been caught lying?
Here is the exact tweet he read aloud over the phone:
Maricopa County is rigging another election. These crooks did it in 2020, 2022, 2023, and will do it again in 2024 if the Dems fail to jail the leading opposition candidate https://t.co/jCrW0P29ew
— Jordan Conradson🇺🇸 (@ConradsonJordan) November 8, 2023
Conradson then told him that he believes it’s 100% true, and we have not seen any evidence to prove otherwise after thoroughly investigating elections in Maricopa County. Moseley quickly asked if there was a court ruling to prove this. So, Conradson mentioned the obvious: 60% of machines failed on election day in 2022, and Maricopa County does almost no ID verification for mail-in ballots–which Conradson personally witnessed inspecting ballots through a legal public records request. “Looks like a rigged election to me,” Conradson expressed. To our surprise, Moseley repeatedly asked where these signature records came from and didn’t seem to believe Conradson until he told Moseley, “Ask your friend, Rey Valenzuela, about it.” Valenzuela is the Elections Director for early voting in Maricopa, and he personally gave Conradson access to inspect ballot envelopes.
See our reporting on a minute fraction of the fraudulent mail-in ballots and signatures that Maricopa County approved and Conradson later inspected at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center here. The County has now revoked our ability to inspect or reproduce mail-in ballot signatures at the advice of their attorneys.
While scrolling through Conradson’s Twitter page, Moseley would have likely scrolled past a later tweet, found below, where Conradson actually accused Maricopa County of a crime and said they should be in prison. This is the very thing Moseley had just raised an issue with. This probably wouldn’t help his argument, though, as spreading election disinformation is a crime punishable by seven months in prison, according to the precedent set in pro-Trump memer Douglas Mackey’s case.
So I hear that @MaricopaVote put out incorrect information about voting and interfered in the Tuesday’s election again
Time to put them all in prison for 7 months on speech crimes just like they did to Douglas Mackey for his MEMES! @stephen_richer @billgatesaz @maricopacounty…
— Jordan Conradson🇺🇸 (@ConradsonJordan) November 8, 2023
This interaction shows that Maricopa County continues to maintain the idea that if we disagree with the government’s position on anything, we’re automatically lying.
If our information is incorrect, as they claim, why are they afraid to explain what we got wrong and answer some questions?
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