Amid an ongoing Arizona State Bar investigation into Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre, a new document has surfaced revealing apparent collusion with Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes against the Cochise County Board of Supervisors — his clients.
The document, a letter from McIntyre to Mayes and Fontes, was submitted as supplemental evidence on Thursday to the State Bar by attorney and state representative Alex Kolodin and former Pima County Supervisor Allyson Miller.
Miller and Kolodin asked the State Bar to investigate McIntyre’s attorney-client privilege with the Cochise County Board of Supervisors last year. The State Bar began investigating McIntyre in December.
In his letter, dated February 2023, McIntyre told Mayes and Fontes that he would be unable to pursue prosecution for anything discovered from an investigation into the board for failing to certify the 2022 election and other election-related issues and attempted to get Mayes to prosecute his clients instead.
“Key to our initial efforts was determining the readily apparent potential conflicts with pursuing a prosecution that might result from that investigation. While I remain satisfied that legally we could move forward if evidence warranted doing so, practically it would create substantial issues for this office’s relationship with the Board moving forward,” wrote McIntyre. “Unfortunately, recent events outside the office may also create the appearance that any prosecution is motivated by less than just concerns.”
The latter remark from McIntyre may have had to do with his drunk driving arrest just weeks earlier.
McIntyre then expressed concern that an October 2022 opinion by former Attorney General Mark Brnovich permitted the expanded hand counts adopted by his county supervisors. McIntyre attached a Pima County Superior Court ruling from November 2022 that countered Brnovich’s opinion.
“I am concerned that so long as this opinion remains published by the Attorney General’s Office, it will continue to be used to further some groups’ interests in compounding election issues in the state,” said McIntyre.
At the time McIntyre wrote this appeal to Mayes to retract Brnovich’s opinion, the county supervisors — his clients — were in the middle of an appeal on their case advocating for hand counts.
Several months later in May, Mayes issued an opinion that withdrew and superseded Brnovich’s opinion. Mayes wrote that Brnovich’s office had misinterpreted state statute to grant Cochise County greater freedom over hand counting ballots.
McIntyre Fontes and Mayes to collaborate with him on next steps regarding prosecution of the board.
“Because of these concerns, I would welcome a discussion with both of your offices regarding the best path forward to ensure that the election issues in Cochise County are addressed in a manner that improves trust and confidence in the system as a whole,” wrote McIntyre.
Miller told the Arizona Daily Independent when the State Bar began investigating McIntyre that she filed the complaint to address a reported pattern of ethical lapses by county attorneys “cav[ing] to political pressures, not principles.”
The supplement of advice to opposing counsel in civil litigation to the supervisors was only part of Miller and Kolodin’s complaint. The pair also accused McIntyre of publicly revealing privileged advice that he provided to the board in executive session.
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