(PatriotWise.com) — Jeff DeWit, the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, stepped down last Wednesday after Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake leaked a secretly recorded audio of a 10-month-old private conversation to force him out of the job, the Associated Press reported.
The Murdoch-owned UK Daily Mail published a report that included audio of a conversation Lake had with DeWitt in March 2023 that the former Republican gubernatorial candidate had secretly recorded.
In the recording, DeWit informed Lake that he had been approached by someone who wanted to know if Lake would accept a job or position in exchange for staying out of the Republican Senate primary in Arizona.
He is heard telling Lake that “powerful people” wanted to keep her out of the race and were “willing to put their money where their mouth is.”
After leaking the recording to the Mail, Lake told reporters at Donald Trump’s victory party in New Hampshire that DeWit must resign as chairman of the state party.
Lake said someone “corrupt and compromised” should not be running the Arizona GOP.
In a statement announcing his resignation, DeWitt attempted to put the secretly recorded conversation into context, noting that he and Lake had been friends, and at the time she secretly recorded him, he was “employing Lake in my private company.”
DeWitt said for Lake to secretly record their conversation while in his employ was an “ethical breach” and raised “serious legal and moral concerns.”
He also questioned whether Lake could be an effective senator when she couldn’t “be trusted to engage in private and confidential conversations” without exploiting them “for personal gain.”
DeWitt stated that he planned to fight for his position in the state party; however, “a few hours ago,” he received an “ultimatum” from the Lake camp demanding that he resign immediately or “face the release of a new, more damaging recording.”
He said he chose to step down in the hope that Lake would “honor her commitment to cease her attacks.”
DeWit, who supports Trump in the 2024 election, was formerly the chief operating officer for the former president’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. After he took office, Trump named DeWit the chief financial officer of NASA.
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