The decision by former U.S. Congressman John Shadegg to help resolve one of the most contentious issues of the Senate audit of how Maricopa County handled the 2020 General Election is shining a light on a little known, but highly valuable, option available in legal disputes.
Shadegg was named last week as a Special Master in the battle between Senate President Karen Fann and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors over the Senate’s two subpoenas which demanded access to the county’s routers and the logs which show internet activity. Both sides agreed to Shadegg’s involvement, which will be paid for by the county.
Since January, county officials had insisted Senate auditors would not be allowed any type of access to the routers or the Splunk logs, citing concerns about data privacy and cybersecurity. But last month Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich warned the county could lose nearly $680 million in state shared revenues for ignoring the lawful subpoenas.
Enter Shadegg, an attorney who served in Congress from 1995 to 2011 as a Republican.
In court litigation, a Special Master is directed by a judge to undertake a specific activity on behalf of the court. This can be done when the activity involves a large amount of time (such as reviewing thousands of documents to determine which are relevant to the legal dispute) or to keep the judge removed from the underlying activity (such as not seeing documents that will not be admissible in the case).
A similar format is outlined in a settlement agreement announced Sept. 17 between Fann and the county board.
Shadegg and his handpicked technical advisory team will be given access to the county’s routers and Splunk logs from Oct. 7, 2020 through Nov. 20, 2020. In turn, the Senate auditors may submit to Shadegg any election-related questions from that time period.
The agreement stipulates that Shadegg can either answer the questions directly or seek input from county staff.
The process will be conducted under heightened security measures, including no internet connectivity while Shadegg and his team search the county’s computer equipment. There many also be no copying of data from one device to another in any form, and team members will be sworn to secrecy.
“Each team member will sign a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement stating that no information the team member acquired during their employment will be disclosed, revealed, released, published or otherwise disseminated to any person or entity, other than the Special Master,” the agreement states.
It will also be Shadegg’s responsibility to communicate directly between attorneys for Maricopa County and the Senate throughout the process, and all decisions by the Special Master as to disclosure of information to the parties will be final. There is no obligation for Shadegg to prepare any reports.
Board Supervisor Bill Gates called the settlement “a win for protecting sensitive information” as well as “a win for transparency.” However, legal experts say the supervisors really had no choice given that Brnovich’s opinion threatened to block more than 40 percent of the county’s budgeted revenues.