Mayes may probe Pinal County Attorney over Signal use, misusing funds

Earlier this year, Phoenix New Times reported that MAGA-aligned Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller had hidden official communications by using the encrypted messaging app Signal, including at one point to whine that Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes should “go away!” On that score, Miller may not get his wish.

In a brief special session on Friday, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, which oversees Miller’s agency, voted unanimously to ask Mayes to investigate Miller over several issues, including possible criminal violations. Miller and the all-Republican board have also been at loggerheads after he didn’t seek board approval before signing a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year.

After convening in executive session on Friday, the five-member board voted to refer “to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office regarding the Pinal County Attorney’s alleged misuse of public monies and resources, and failure to retain public records.”

Miller and his office have not replied to requests for comment, while a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office declined to comment on any potential investigation.

Those allegations relate to a notice of claim filed late last year by a former county attorney employee. As first reported by New Times, the woman alleged that she was sexually discriminated against, worked without pay for several weeks and was forced to resign in late October. She also claimed Miller’s office treated other female employees in a similar fashion.

Additionally, the notice of claim said that Miller and his chief of staff, Jeremiah Brosowske, used Signal to elude Arizona public records laws. At a press conference at the Arizona Capitol in January, Miller told New Times that he and his staff did not use encrypted apps such as Signal and denied that he had the app on his phone, though he declined to show New Times his phone to prove it. 

New Times subsequently viewed screenshots of numerous Signal messages in 2025 between Miller and a member of his staff. Miller’s Signal account even used the seal of the Pinal County Attorney’s Office as its icon. Those screenshots also showed that Brosowske had his own Signal account and administered a group account that was set to delete messages after an hour. 

In response to a public records request by New Times for all of Miller and Brosowske’s communications on Signal, Miller’s office denied that it had any such records. Arizona law requires the retention of public records, and the destruction of them is a possible class 6 felony.

The board’s outside counsel, Joe Kanefield, told the board that these matters “were revealed through the investigation that was undertaken” as the result of “unauthorized hires” by Miller’s office.

“These are issues that are handled by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office,” said Kanefield, former chief of staff for the late Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. He said the referral was made necessary because “they revealed themselves in the manner that they did.”

‘Plainly and clearly against the law’

During the session, the board also unanimously voted to compensate two unnamed employees who worked for Miller’s office without the prior approval of the board and were not paid for the time they worked — hence the “alleged misuse of public monies and resources” mentioned in the referral.

According to sources familiar with the referral, the board is also asking Mayes to investigate the unauthorized use of a database of criminal histories maintained by the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Sources tell New Times that this likely occurred when Miller had people working for him who were not yet on the county payroll, utilizing the system under someone else’s login. Permitting such unauthorized access is a potential class 6 felony under Arizona law.

But former Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer, who served for eight years before Miller defeated him in the 2024 Republican primary, was aghast at the allegations against his former foe, including possible unauthorized access of criminal histories. “I can tell you DPS would not be happy with that,” he told New Times. “They would have jumped all over us.” Nor did Volkmer approve of Miller’s alleged use of Signal, which he said his office never used.

“It’s plainly and clearly against the law,” he said. “The public records law is pretty darn clear. It’s not even debatable.”

Many, including Miller, may be tempted to frame the referral to Mayes as part of the current tug-of-war between Miller and the board over his office’s 287(g) agreement with ICE. The board recently declared the agreement null and void, citing a legal opinion that said the county attorney’s office lacked the authority to enter into an agreement without the board’s approval.

Miller, who clearly relishes the attention he’s receiving over the fight, has said that the agreement remains in effect. The board, which says it faces potential liability and financial costs as a result of any agreement, has since authorized its counsel to sue Miller’s office and seek an injunction halting the agreement’s implementation.

Supervisor Stephen Miller (no relation to Brad, or the identically named Donald Trump advisor) told New Times that the county attorney’s actions had forced the board’s hand. 

“We’re supposed to make sure everybody’s behaving themselves, but if we don’t, we have no recourse,” the supervisor told New Times. “It’s unfortunate that the accusations that have come out in these employment cases have risen to a level that we feel that they should be sent to the AG’s office.”

This story is part of the Arizona Watchdog Project, a yearlong reporting effort led by New Times and supported by the Trace Foundation, in partnership with Deep South Today.