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This Week's Updates:
CfA Urges Prosecutors to Investigate Arizona Sen. Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli
Sonny Borrelli was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2013, eventually winning a seat in the state Senate and becoming Majority Leader in 2023. This rise to power was achieved in spite of a 2016 revelation that Borrelli was arrested and pled guilty to assaulting his then-wife, Julie, in 2001. At the time, Borrelli was apparently successful at convincing voters that this charge was not as it seemed.
Now, CfA has uncovered and released a previously unreported incident report related to another episode in 2004, which put Borrelli’s wife in the hospital with facial bruises, a cut lip, and a broken tooth. CfA also discovered that in 2017—during his divorce proceedings—Borrelli attested that there had been no domestic violence during his marriage. The petition he filed included an Affirmation Under Penalty of Perjury, which he signed.
Accordingly, CfA is urging Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Mohave County District Attorney Matthew Smith to investigate Sen. Borrelli for potential perjury based on these findings. The story was covered by The Daily Beast.
Senators Markey, Blumenthal Cite TTP Research in Letter to Zuckerberg on Child Safety
On Wednesday, Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sharply criticizing Meta’s plans to attract young users to its virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds. The senators’ letter cited a report from CfA’s Tech Transparency Project which found that Facebook automatically greenlit ads promoting tobacco products, alcohol, & eating disorders targeting teens. Meta and its platforms have repeatedly failed to protect young users from harm, with executives declining to act even when they were informed of the dangers that Instagram posed to teen girls. Given this history of neglect, the senators are urging Zuckerberg to keep Horizon Worlds closed to users under 18, writing that “any strategy to invite young users into a digital space rife with potential harms should not be driven by a goal to maximize profit.”
Leonard Leo’s Judicial Influence Project Pays Off
In January, CfA urged the Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee to open an investigation into Kellyanne Conway to examine a possible “pay-to-play” arrangement surrounding Supreme Court nominations. Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo played a major role in that story, facilitating a multi-million dollar deal to purchase Conway’s consulting firm – Leo’s list of Supreme Court nominees was eventually endorsed by President Trump, while Conway served as his Senior Advisor. Now, POLITICO has launched an investigation into Leo’s finances, and found that his lifestyle took a “lavish turn” in 2016, the year he began advising President Trump on his judicial picks.
