UPDATED: The AZGOP’s Secret Sting Operation Against Representative Stephanie Stahl Hamilton

UPDATE 4/2/23: Three Members of the Arizona House have indeed filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Stahl Hamilton. You can read this fundamentally dishonest piece of MAGA hypocrisy here.

Readers are probably familiar by now with the narrative around Representative Stahl Hamilton having moved a couple Bibles around in the Captial’s Private Member Lounge, what you might not be aware of is the GOP leadership’s plotting and secrecy around the effort to catch the person moving said Bibles. We’ll discuss more about that, but, first, I want to present Rep. Stahl Hamilton’s spontaneous apology and the AZFamily story:

I spoke with Rep. Stahl Hamilton regarding this issue and came away from our conversation with the impression that the reasons for her behavior were not at all frivolous or mischievous, but a result of offense to some of her most deeply held religious convictions as a Christian and an ordained pastor.

Specifically, she was offended by the prominent and constant display of Holy Scripture in what should be a wholly secular – or at the very least nonsectarian – space, and the implied endorsement and elevation of Christianity above other faiths in a place that should remain neutral and impartial as to one’s faith. Some in the media are at least beginning to question the propriety of that.

She was also deeply offended and frustrated by the constant misuse of the Christian faith and the Bible by some in the majority to justify their vile bigotry and hatred in sponsoring some of the legislation passed by the majority this session targeting our LGBTQIA+ communities, and especially our most vulnerable and misunderstood population of trans children. I believe that Representative Stahl Hamilton acted out of her own deeply held Christian faith that the Gospel of Jesus is centered on love and tolerance, not hate, exclusion, and bigotry.

I strongly suspect that the AZGOP will seek an ethics inquiry into this incident, and when and if that happens, it will be a persecution the Representative, not for any ethical breach – she did nothing unethical nor illegal, nor even irreligious – but a religiously motivated persecution for her liberal and loving interpretation of the Gospel that prompted her small act of rebellion.

Let’s now consider exactly how we got to the point where Rep. Stahl Hamiliton was ‘caught in the act’.

Interesting, is it not, that the Representative and all of her caucus mates were utterly unaware that anyone was filming the Private Lounge? Why did the GOP leadership secretly install a camera in the Private Lounge without informing the whole body? Instead of a simple email from leadership asking whoever might be moving the Bibles in the Private Lounge to knock it off, GOP leadership instead undertook a secret sting operation, including secretly placing video surveillance, to catch the culprit on video. And then instead of handling the issue internally, they leaked that footage to a sympathetic news outlet in order to spring a trap and create a scandal. That seems like pretty ethically suspect behavior to me, actually.

The camera placed in the lounge was not part of the normal surveillance video network run by capital security and the Sergeant at Arms. It was a one-off camera that ran for up to a month in an effort to catch the ‘culprit’ and then leaked to embarrass that person. Where is all that video (potentially hundreds of hours worth) now? Is the footage a public record? Has it been destroyed? Those answers are currently unknown. I understand that the footage has been requested by the Capital Times, but has not yet been produced.

There was a reasonable expectation of privacy in the Private Lounge. Members, staff, and lobbyists met there regularly to discuss confidential business and strategy, yet the leadership secretly – with no notice to the minority – placed a recording device there. Did the video footage include sound? If it did, that may be a crime under Arizona law. And surely the majority leadership would be aware of THAT fact – and thus would never admit it and would possibly destroy the evidence if they had – which strongly argues for an independent investigation of the possibility of a criminal violation by GOP leadership. The potential exists that the majority was secretly recording the conversations of the minority for as much as a month in order to pursue their little sting operation. Did the majority leadership secretly record confidential and candid conversations in which the parties recorded thought they had a reasonable expectation of privacy? That is potentially a massive violation of norms and trust at the Capital in service to a bit of petty embarrassment to someone simply moving a few Bibles around, not to mention a potentially criminal act.

That is the real story here: the violation of minority Members’ reasonable expectation of privacy, and potentially state law, in service to a petty political sting operation.

Members and staff confirm that there was no email inquiry from leadership on the matter, and there was no notice that video surveillance had commenced in the Private Lounge where there was none in the past and a reasonable expectation of privacy existed. How much of the footage was released to AZFamily/Channel3? Was Sargeant-at-Arms Chuck Fitzgerald aware of the sting? I have made an inquiry, but have not gotten a response from him or his office. Did he cooperate in placing the camera secretly? Does he have possession of the secret surveillance video, or possibly audio?

Many of these vital questions that go to the heart of the violation of trust and comity at the Capital remain unasked by the media, who are instead treating this story as a minor and quirky scandal around the religiously-motivated peccadilloes of one Democratic Representative. But this is a much wider story of the violation of privacy and trust within the institution, a possible violation of state laws regarding the secret recording of others, the possible mishandling and concealment of what almost surely are either public records or the evidence of a crime, and the petty and vengeful behavior by the majority toward the minority at the Capital.