Arizona Lawmaker: I Was Just Kidding When I Said I’d ‘B-tch Slap’ Lobbyist
The Arizona House Ethics Committee met for a second time on Thursday to probe freshman Democrat Leezah Sun, who admitted to saying she would “b-tch slap” a lobbyist. Sun first clashed with lobbyist Pilar Sinawi and several other officials in May, when the legislator claims the lobbyist “baited” her into a verbal confrontation. The heated comments occurred after an argument about funding a highway off-ramp. Then, at an August conference in Tucson, witnesses say Sun threatened to “b-tch-slap” Sinawi (who was not at the conference) and said she wanted to throw her off the hotel balcony to “kill her.” When Sun later tried to follow the lobbyist’s husband and 18-year-old child on Instagram, she was hit with a restraining order and her fellow Democrats requested the ethics probe. (In a separate incident before the ethics committee, Sun also stands accused of bizarrely trying to interfere in a child custody transfer and name-dropping the state Attorney General.) At the meeting this week, Sun insisted, “I was just being dramatic,” and “it wasn’t a real threat.” One of the witnesses to the August incident rebutted, “It was not said in jest. Not sarcastic. Not hyperbole. This was a serious threat levied.”
