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Group of senators, representatives asks FBI to look into Arizona leaders' role in Capitol riot

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Posted at 11:22 AM, Jan 13, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-13 13:41:03-05

A group of Arizona leaders is asking the Federal Bureau of Investigations to look into some of the state's Republican legislators and their alleged roles in the riots last week at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Several dozen State senators and representatives sent a letter to the FBI and Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen on Tuesday, urging them to look into federal and state lawmakers who were "directly involved" and those who "aided and abetted sedition, treason or any other federal crimes."

"The events of January 6 were not spontaneous, nor were they the random acts of a diffuse handful of unconnected individuals," the letter reads in part. "For weeks prior to the breach, a group of Republican Arizona legislators and legislators-elect publicly advocated for the overthrow of the election results which encouraged precisely the kind of violent conduct that we witnessed."

The group says, according to social media, that Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem and former Representative Anthony Kern were present at the Capitol riot and "actively encouraged the mob, both before and during the attack..."

The group also says a riot organizer "publicly claimed to have planned and organized the insurrection with Arizona Congressmen Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs."

Through the investigation the group is seeking, those who participated in the riot may be "potentially criminally liable and ineligible for public office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as having engaged in insurrection and rebellion."

Read the full letter here.