Something isn’t right. A story that appeared at Zero Hedge: Judge Daniel Martin will be taking over the case after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury, a Republican appointee, recused himself from the legal challenge on April 25.
Martin, who was appointed to the bench in 2007 by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, is currently assigned to the civil division after having previously been assigned to the family, criminal, and juvenile court departments.
New judge reportedly used to work for Perkins Coie Law Firm – which is behind efforts to block the entire audit. https://t.co/vsiWwp8QmK pic.twitter.com/T7qzOqUK4k
— Clay Conboy (@Clayconboy1) April 26, 2021
Please call the Judge’s Clerk’s Office at 602-372-2925 and ask that Judge Martin recuse himself regarding case number: CV2021-006646. His relationship with Perkins Coie is a conflict of interest.
— Circle Back To Trump @csutton1959, SCMama on Gab (@csutton1959) April 28, 2021
According to Martin’s Superior Court biography, he formerly worked as an associate at the law firm Brown & Bain—which merged with Perkins Coie—a leading pro-Democrat law firm—in 2004, after Martin’s time at the firm. Election attorney Marc Elias is a partner at that law firm, chair of Perkins Coie’s Political Law Group, and one of the Democratic Party’s top lawyers.
Elias previously suggested in a Twitter post that the Arizona GOP may receive “sanctions” for a prior lawsuit that sought a hand count audit in Maricopa County.
The announcement comes after Coury recused himself when he learned that attorney Chris Viskovic, with whom he had a prior working relationship, had joined the case.
Real-time camera footage of Maricopa County’s large-scale audit of the 2020 election, Maricopa County, Ariz. (Screenshot/The Epoch Times)
Arizona Democrats filed an emergency request to block the audit on April 22. Coury granted the request the following day but only if the party would post a $1 million bond. Democrats refused, so the audit wasn’t paused.
Coury hasn’t been popular among Democrats, who campaigned to oust him last year from another four-year term on the bench over his ruling on an education ballot proposition called Invest in Ed.
The Maricopa County Democratic Party in October 2020 campaigned to oust Coury, creating a website that called him an “activist judge” after he ruled that the summary for the proposed tax hike for education was misleading.
The Superior Court has announced that all hearings previously scheduled under Coury are canceled. Each side of the legal challenge will have 10 days to tell Martin how they think the case should be handled moving forward.
After Martin was assigned to take over, the Arizona Democratic Party, however, requested an “immediate hearing,” 12 News reported. According to the news outlet, a new hearing has been scheduled for 11 a.m. on April 27.
New Judge In Maricopa County Audit Worked For Firm That Merged With Perkins Coie
Stunning Judge Switch During Audit
By Patrick Howley, National File, April 28, 2021:
Judge Daniel Martin, who is now presiding over the challenge to the Arizona Senate Republicans’ audit of the Maricopa County 2020 election results, is a Democrat appointee who worked for a firm that merged with Perkins Coie, the pro-Democrat powerhouse firm that is trying to shut down the Maricopa County audit.
Martin took over the case after the previous judge overseeing it, Republican Judge Christopher Coury, recused himself because a lawyer for the Cyber Ninjas auditing team previously working as an extern for Coury’s office. That lawyer was not listed as a representative for Cyber Ninjas until recently, prompting Coury’s recusal. A hearing will reportedly be convened in the case on Tuesday at 11 AM. A local NBC reporter said that the new judge Martin was initially appointed to a judgeship by former Democrat Arizona governor Janet Napolitano.
Judge Daniel Martin worked as an associate attorney for Brown & Bain from 1992 to 1996. In 2004, Brown & Bain merged with Perkins Coie, the massive pro-Democrat law firm. Perkins Coie has been active in the audit process on behalf of the Democrat Party cause. Perkins Coie officials signed a letter to the Arizona Senate president Karen Fann threatening legal consequences if they interpret that the Senate audit ends up breaking federal civil rights laws. The Arizona Democrat Party’s lawsuit against the Republican Senate President Karen Fann, Cyber Ninjas and others was filed by lawyers for Coppelsmith Brockelman and Barton Mendez Soto, two firms that are linked to Perkins Coie by virtue of the fact that their firm officials also signed the threatening letter to the Senate president Fann that Perkins Coie officials signed. Martin’s biography shows the apparent conflict of interest, with one bio mentioning that Brown & Bain is “now Perkins Coie.”
