JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY
Arizona Mirror
An attorney who represented former Republican lawmaker Mark Finchem in an election contest that baselessly claimed fraud has been sanctioned and ordered to retire for at least one year.
Cave Creek attorney Daniel McCauley, a lawyer with no experience in election law, represented the former Oro Valley legislator in contesting Finchem’s election loss. He and Finchem claimed that Adrian Fontes, who defeated Finchem in the 2022 secretary of state race, only won because of election malfeasance at the hands of Maricopa County and then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
However, the two men provided no evidence that anything affected the outcome of the election.
Last year, after the case was heard and dismissed, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian deemed that the suit was brought in bad faith and allowed for sanctions to be pursued against both Finchem and McCauley. In her ruling, Julian cited comments made by Finchem and McCauley during proceedings.
“I took this (case) because they needed somebody to do this,” McCauley said during one hearing. “I guess it does not matter if I get sanctioned here. I’m 75, semi-retired, and it will be two years or so before they get to it.”
