Dem AZ AG Mayes Skips Criminal Interview of Gov Hobbs and Decides Not to Indict
THE INTERVIEW THAT NEVER HAPPENED
By Linda Brickman
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said it plainly:
“You cannot blow off the Attorney General’s Office. Full stop. No one can.”
Governor Katie Hobbs did: she never sat for the interview Mayes’s investigators had insisted on. Instead, Hobbs submitted written statements through her attorneys. Three days later, the AG’s Office completed its memorandum declining prosecution in the Sunshine Residential Homes investigation – 47 Days before ballots are mailed.
So, What Happened to the Pre-Election Interview?
HOW WE GOT HERE — IN 60 SECONDS
Sunshine Residential Homes is one of Arizona’s major providers of group-home beds for foster children. The company and its owner made substantial political contributions connected to Governor Katie Hobbs and the Arizona Democratic Party. Political contributions are legal. But questions arose when Sunshine — after an earlier request for higher reimbursement had been denied — later received an unusual mid-contract rate increase from the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
In June 2024, State Senator T.J. Shope referred the allegations to both Attorney General Kris Mayes and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. Mayes opened a criminal investigation, then told Mitchell that conducting parallel investigations was not in the state’s best interest and could jeopardize the integrity of her investigation. Mitchell refused to step aside and continued her own inquiry.
For more than TWO YEARS, the central question remained unanswered: Did political money influence the treatment Sunshine received from the State of Arizona? Hobbs repeatedly denied influencing the decision, and the existence of political contributions followed by favorable state action did not, by itself, prove bribery or pay-to-play.
By 2026, however, the investigation had produced a new question — one involving the Governor herself.
“THOROUGH AND COMPLETE”
By the spring of 2026, Kris Mayes’s investigators had been working the Sunshine case for nearly two years. And they wanted to talk to Governor Katie Hobbs. On April 24, Mayes publicly confirmed that her investigators had requested an interview with the Governor.
“Our investigators are prepared to do that interview,” Mayes said.
Then she explained why:
“I think that’s appropriate to do in an investigation like this to make sure that it’s thorough and complete.”
Those words matter. Mayes was not saying Hobbs was guilty. She was saying that personally questioning the Governor was an appropriate part of making this particular investigation thorough and complete.
Four days later, Hobbs was asked whether she would sit for that interview. She would not commit. Instead, Hobbs repeated her position that she had not been involved in the Department of Child Safety’s decision concerning Sunshine and said she looked forward to the investigation concluding. And the interview still did not happen.
By July 30, No interview date had been set. The investigation, meanwhile, was approaching its end. The Attorney General had said questioning Hobbs was appropriate to make the investigation “thorough and complete.” But the Governor still had not been questioned.
Then came August 3, 2026. An interview occurred with Dennis Welch. And Kris Mayes said something that would make what happened next considerably harder to explain.
A reporter by the name of Dennis Welch asked whether Hobbs had effectively decided she could simply ignore the Attorney General’s investigators. Mayes rejected that characterization immediately.
“The answer is no. You cannot blow off the Attorney General’s Office — full stop. No one can, regardless of who they are.”
But Welch kept pressing. The Governor still had not sat for the requested interview. Mayes disagreed with the suggestion that Hobbs had been avoiding her office and declined to discuss the details of an active investigation. Instead, she offered an assurance:
“We will get the information that they need.”
Mayes also said the investigation was “nearly complete.”
That raised an obvious question. Welch asked if investigators were nearly finished — but still had not questioned the Governor — could the Attorney General’s Office complete the investigation without ever interviewing her? This time, Mayes did not answer.
“I’m going to decline to answer that question right now.”
That exchange matters now because less than three weeks later, Arizona learned the answer.
Yes. The investigation would be completed without Katie Hobbs ever sitting across from the investigators who had spent months trying to question her. And the story was about to become even stranger.
THREE DAYS
On August 17, 2026, Governor Katie Hobbs finally responded to the Attorney General’s investigators. But she still did not sit for an interview. Instead, attorneys representing Hobbs submitted two written statements — one addressing her conduct as Governor and another addressing her conduct as a candidate.
In those statements, Hobbs denied discussing Sunshine Residential Homes’ reimbursement rates or procurement decisions with company owner Simon Kottoor. She denied directing anyone else to influence those decisions. She also denied that political contributions — to her campaign, inaugural activities or legal-defense fund — played any role in the Department of Child Safety’s treatment of Sunshine.
Those denials were important…
But Written Answers are not the same thing as a Live Investigative Interview. An investigator reading a prepared response cannot immediately ask:
- What do you mean by that?
- Who told you?
- When did you learn it?
- Does this email change your answer?
- Why does another witness remember it differently?
That does not make written responses improper. But it does make the next three days worth examining very carefully.
- August 17: Hobbs’s written statements arrived.
- August 20: Chief Counsel Nick Klingerman of the AG’s Criminal Division completed the memorandum recommending that prosecution be declined.
- August 21: Mayes publicly announced that her office had found insufficient evidence of the quid pro quo necessary, under its legal analysis, to pursue a bribery prosecution.
Three days.
That timeline does not prove the outcome had been predetermined. But it raises an unavoidable investigative question: What happened during those three days?
- Were Hobbs’s written answers compared against witness interviews?
- Were contradictions identified?
- Were follow-up questions submitted?
- Were additional documents reviewed because of anything Hobbs said?
- Did investigators seek clarification from any witness?
- Or had the investigation effectively reached its conclusion before the Governor’s answers arrived?
Those questions matter because Mayes had spent months saying her investigators wanted information directly from Hobbs. They finally received her answers…from her attorneys. Three days later, the prosecution memorandum was complete.
And that brings us to another number now at the center of this story:
TWELVE INTERVIEWS. BUT WHAT WAS ASKED AND ANSWERED?
Mayes has defended the investigation by pointing to its scope: more than 100,000 documents, over one terabyte of data, and 12 investigative interviews. Her memorandum identifies several people questioned, including Sunshine CEO Simon Kottoor, Hobbs’ campaign director Nicole DeMont, and current or former DCS officials David Lujan, Alex Ong, Robert Navarro and Michael Faust.
Those witnesses generally denied that Hobbs or her office directed Sunshine’s rate increase. DCS officials said the decision was driven by Sunshine’s importance as a large provider and the risk that it could move beds to a higher-paying federal program.
But one detail deserves attention…Navarro acknowledged telling Lujan that Sunshine was a donor to the Governor and said that knowledge “put pressure on” people within DCS. Mayes’s office concluded that the pressure came from employees’ own awareness of Sunshine’s political connections — not from any directive by Hobbs or her office.
That may be correct…But the public has only seen the Attorney General’s summary — NOT the interviews themselves. We do not yet have the complete transcripts or videos. We do not know every question asked, every follow-up, or how investigators tested one witness’s account against another.
And now Senate President Warren Petersen is demanding that those records be released. The Attorney General’s Office says they will be.
AGO spokesman Richie Taylor told KJZZ that the interview materials will be released after review and redaction, although no release date has been announced. Some of the material overlaps with the separate Auditor General investigation, which remains active.
That is important, for three reasons: (1) early ballot mailings on October 7, 2026, (2) those interviews may or may not strongly support Mayes’s decision not to prosecute, and (3) they may raise new questions about Hobbs the voters are entitled to.
At this point, neither Mayes’s assurances nor Petersen’s criticism should settle the matter.
The evidence should.
THE INVESTIGATION ENDED. THE QUESTIONS DIDN’T.
Kris Mayes has made her decision. Her office says investigators found insufficient evidence to establish the quid pro quo necessary under its legal analysis to pursue a bribery prosecution. That conclusion deserves to be reported accurately. So does everything that preceded it.
Mayes said interviewing Hobbs was appropriate to make the investigation “thorough and complete.” Months later, she said no one could “blow off the Attorney General’s Office.”
Hobbs never sat for the interview…Her attorneys submitted written statements on August 17…Three days later, the prosecution memorandum was complete…And now Mayes says the missing interview was not “make or break.”
Perhaps the records will explain exactly why.
Release them.
- Let Arizonans see the interviews.
- Let them see the questions.
- Let them see the answers.
Then let the evidence — not either candidate — tell Arizona whether this investigation was truly thorough and complete.
MAYES BLEW OFF HER OWN OFFICE, PARDONED HOBBS, ENDED THE INVESTIGATION.
Kris Mayes has reached her conclusion. Her office says investigators reviewed more than 100,000 documents, conducted 12 interviews and found insufficient evidence of the quid pro quo necessary, under its legal analysis, to pursue a bribery prosecution. That conclusion must be reported accurately. So must the path that led to it.
In April, Mayes said interviewing Governor Katie Hobbs was necessary to make the investigation “thorough and complete.” In August, she said:
“You cannot blow off the Attorney General’s Office. Full stop. No one can.”
Yet Hobbs never sat for the interview. Instead, her attorneys submitted two written statements on August 17. Three days later, the Criminal Division’s memorandum recommending against prosecution was complete.
Mayes now says the missing interview was not “make or break.” Perhaps the records will explain why. But Arizona should not have to guess.
Senate President Warren Petersen has demanded the underlying interviews and transcripts. The Attorney General’s Office says they will be released after review and redaction.
Good – BUT no guarantee BEFORE the early election voting!
Because this is now a campaign issue in both Hobbs and Mayes elections; and this should not come down to whether Arizonans believe Kris Mayes or Warren Petersen. It should come down to the evidence…
- Did investigators test the witnesses’ answers?
- Did they pursue inconsistencies?
- Did they compare Hobbs’s written statements with the documents and testimony already collected?
And what happened during those three days between her answers and the completed prosecution memorandum?
- None of those questions necessarily proves wrongdoing by Hobbs.
- None automatically proves Mayes protected her.
They ask something much simpler:
Was every reasonable effort made to find out?
SHOW US YOUR WORK!
Mayes said no one could blow off the Attorney General’s Office. Yet Hobbs did as she never sat for the interview. Then 2 years later, weeks BEFORE the election, Mayes PARDONED Hobbs, and the investigation amazingly went away!
Now Arizona Deserves to See the Evidence.
DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE INTERVIEWS!
By Linda Brickman
©2026 Linda Brickman. All Rights Reserved.
When has a Democrat ever been held for accountability?