Arizona’s top legislative Republicans are requesting a new judge in an ongoing voting rights lawsuit, because the judge’s brother called them names on social media.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) and House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) are suing Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes for publishing what they say is an illegal guide for election workers.
The case is assigned to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan, but Petersen and Toma asked the court for a new judge, believing that their case won’t be handled in an impartial way because Ryan’s brother, attorney Tom Ryan, has called them names on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t promote an insurrection,” Tom Ryan said on Friday.
“All I did was comment on the inanity of a stupid lawsuit filed by a couple of chucklenuts and yahoos,” Ryan added, repeating the names he’d called the legislators.
He noted that his brother doesn’t have an X account and doesn’t discuss his cases with him, so he doesn’t think he would have seen the comments.
