Arizona AG Mayes Office Sought ACLU and Prison Law Office Help to Staff Corrections Roles Internal emails show Chief Deputy Attorney General Daniel Barr asked the ACLU and Berkeley-based Prison Law Office to recommend attorneys for Arizona Department of Corrections work and its general counsel job. Mayes campaign says the ACLU has repeatedly sued her. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes office repeatedly sought recruiting help from two prominent left-wing legal groups that spent years suing the state corrections department alongside Mayes top deputy, internal emails obtained by Fox News Digital show. Chief Deputy Attorney General Daniel Barr sought recommendations from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Berkeley-based Prison Law Office for attorneys to handle Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry work inside the Attorney General Office. Barr later sought candidates to serve as ADCRR general counsel. The emails show the recruitment effort unfolded in 2023 as Mayes, a Democrat, prepared to defend her role as the state top law enforcement officer.Mayes Faces Republican Challenger Warren PetersenIn November general election, Mayes is slated to face Arizona state Sen. Warren Petersen, a Republican. Mayes won her 2022 race by just 280 votes. The ACLU has pushed to cut jail and prison populations by 50 percent through reforms including decriminalization, bail reform, shorter sentences and clemency, and has called for reductions in immigration detention.The Prison Law Office says it works to reduce incarceration. Mayes has sparred with liberal legal groups even as Barr, one of her top aides, repeatedly sought candidate recommendations from the progressive ACLU and PLO for corrections-related legal roles. I am looking to bring as much ADCRR work back in-house as possible in the Arizona AG Office, Barr wrote to representatives of the ACLU and PLO in February 2023.To do that, I need to hire attorneys to represent ADCRR in numerous capacities. If you know of anyone who may be interested in helping to turnaround things around here, please let me know. In April of that year, Barr again turned to the groups, this time seeking possible candidates for ADCRR top legal position. Let me know if you have any suggested candidates, he wrote, forwarding an email to PLO and ACLU representatives soliciting applications for ADCRR general counsel.Barr Seeks Candidates for ADCRR General CounselWhen his efforts to fill the role of ADCRR top lawyer bore no fruit, he again turned to the two groups. Still no takers for the ADCRR general counsel job. If you have any suggestions, please let me know, he wrote to them on May 11, 2023. That same day, ACLU National Prison Project director David Fathi responded, promising to redouble his efforts to find a candidate for Barr.Corene Kendrick, the deputy director of the National Prison Project, responded in turn to Barr email that one of her possible recommendations was already enjoying suing ADCRR in civil rights damages cases in her spare time of running her cafe in Carrizozo, showing that at least one prospective candidate being floated to Barr had experience suing ADCRR in civil-rights cases. Maybe FOX News should start with the facts: the ACLU has repeatedly sued Kris Mayes over issues where they disagreed with her, Delaney Corcoran, the campaign manager for Mayes re-election campaign, told Fox News Digital when asked about the email correspondence.Mayes Defends Police Funding and Immigration LawsMayes has consistently fought for funding for Arizona police and cartel task forces and stands shoulder to shoulder with Arizona sheriffs and police. Together, Mayes and law enforcement have seized 27 million fentanyl pills off of our streets, more than any other Attorney General in state history. Mayes also defended Arizona against lawsuits from the ACLU challenging laws that allowed state and local police to arrest people illegally entering the country between ports of entry and restricted settled moderate policies.Fox News Digital only obtained email records, not call transcripts or in-person meeting minutes, so it is unclear what further assistance, if any, the PLO and ACLU gave the Arizona Attorney General Office. ADCRR ultimately hired for the position, and the office had backed several criminal-justice positions associated with the left, including addressing systemic racism in policing and pardoning people convicted of nonviolent federal marijuana offenses.Congressman Hunt Condemns Anti-Police RhetoricCongressman Wesley Hunt, a Republican from Texas, strongly condemns the Democratic Party anti-police rhetoric and defund the police movement. Hunt argues that leftists believe criminals are victims, leading to increased crime rates and unsafe communities for the most vulnerable. He emphasizes the need for strong law enforcement, contrasting it with the left demonization of police.The recruitment emails raised questions about the influence of groups that have long clashed with the state corrections system and now face a November matchup between Mayes and Petersen.