US seeks secrecy for material in Arredondo case

PHOENIX - Federal prosecutors say pretrial material they plan to give an indicted Arizona legislator contains confidential and sensitive information related to other investigations.

Prosecutors make that disclosure in a motion asking a federal judge to order that state Rep. Ben Arredondo and his defense team be ordered to keep the information secret.

The motion says the other investigations are both active and closed and that some of the information concerns witnesses.

In documents filed in Federal Court Wednesday, Jack Smith, the Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ writes in part:

"If this information were to be publicly disclosed, such disclosure might impede those investigations which are ongoing and/or impair the privacy rights of third parties whose conduct is or was at one time under investigation."

Arredondo was indicted last week on bribery and other charges . The charges accuse the Tempe Democrat of soliciting and accepting sports tickets from undercover FBI agents and of disclosing confidential city information to the agents.

The indictment said the agents posed as representatives of a business trying to acquire city-owned property.

Arredondo's attorney has said Arredondo will plead not guilty.