(The Center Square) – The lead budget writer for Washington House Republicans says documents obtained by The Center Square, revealing how supporters of the income tax worked with the office of Attorney General Nick Brown in crafting the legislation-despite knowing it was unconstitutional-should, “disqualify Brown from office.” The AG’s office, however, calls the suggestion “absurd.”
The 988 pages of unredacted documents show emails between Solicitor General Noah Purcell, who works in the AG’s office, and discussions with state lawmakers over how to pass a 9.9% income tax so the Supreme Court would reconsider the 1933 ruling against an income tax while avoiding voter referendums to reject the measure.
“Now we get to spread a little sunshine on the entire process here,” said Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn. “This whole process has been rotten. I’m not surprised at all. This is exactly how I’ve come to learn that Olympia operates, and sometimes it’s kind of just gross. But that doesn’t make it any less shocking to the system.”
Couture told The Center Square that majority Democrats only represent special interests and elites.
“If you are well connected with the folks in Olympia in the majority party, you can get what you need,” he said. “You will get the money, you will get the laws passed, you will get whatever radical policy it is. That is what’s on display here in these internal documents.”
The emails obtained by The Center Square show Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, the prime sponsor of SB 6346, explicitly stated the goal was to force the Supreme Court to stop defining income as property, potentially clearing the path for a broad-based state income tax.
Though Brown himself is not identified in the emails, Couture said it’s his office and he’s responsible.
“He’s the captain of this ship, and I believe this is the atmosphere he has created,” he said. “The radical atmosphere. I don’t even know what you’d call it, but it is activism-socialist, activism disguised as an attorney general’s office.”
Dem can’t speak publicly
Eight House Democrats voted against the income tax bill on final passage and one of those members spoke with The Center Square Thursday on condition of anonymity.
The lawmaker shared that speaking publicly about the recently obtained records would put “a target on [their] back”.
This member told TCS they are afraid of repercussions from leadership if they speak out, calling Democratic leadership “arrogant” and adding that speaking out would “bring swift and sure retribution.”
Couture suggested that recent significant turnover among justices on the Washington Supreme Court is not a coincidence.
Justice Barbara Madsen retired April 3, 2026. Governor Ferguson appointed Theo Angelis to fill the vacancy.
Mary Yu stepped down at the end of 2025. As reported by TCS, Colleen Melody was appointed to the seat, joining the bench in January 2026.
Raquel Montoya-Lewis announced she will not seek re-election to a second term.
The departures mean at least one-third of the nine-member bench will be new by this time next year.
Supreme Court plan
“It’s all part of the plan. They’ve actually been planning this for a long time. This is the strategy for how they would attack the income tax. I personally believe that Jamie Pedersen and other, maybe some other lead Democrats have actually approached some of these Supreme Court Justices,” Couture said. “I’ve heard that through the grapevine and it doesn’t mean that it’s 100% true, but I kind of believe it in my gut.”
Couture said the emails between the AG’s office and crafters of the income tax bill are a symptom of the drunken power of the majority.
“This is what happens when you’re drunk on forty years of one-party rule in Washington state,” he said.
Mike Faulk, Brown’s communications director, disputed any wrong doing in the released emails.
“This is absurd,” he wrote in an email statement. “Nothing in the articles on this subject have found anything our office did improperly. We have a legal and professional obligation to advise our clients and will continue doing so in accordance with the law. Calling on the AG to resign when our office did nothing wrong is not only silly, it undermines efforts at accountability when state agencies or elected officials actually do things wrong.
Senate Democratic Communications Director Aaron Wasser responded to a request for comment to Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, who sponsored the tax bill, saying the emails just mirrored what Pedersen previously said.
“Sen. Pedersen and others have long anticipated there’d be a court challenge to the Millionaires Tax and spoke openly about it so of course there are emails along those same lines,” Wasser wrote.
