The state grand jury levied felony charges against the 11 Arizona Republicans, including two sitting state Senators, who falsely claimed to be “duly elected and qualified” electors for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The Associated Press reported that Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Rudy Giuliani were also indicted, although their names have not been released officially.
Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the indictments of the 11 Arizona Republicans today. The state grand jury returned charges on nine counts: one count of conspiracy, a class two felony; two counts of fraud, one a class two felony and one a class five felony; and six counts of forgery, a class four felony.
The indictment names Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek; former Arizona Republican party chair Kelli Ward; her husband Michael Ward; then-executive director of the state Republican party Gregory Safsten; RNC committeeman and chief operating officer of Turning Point USA, Tyler Bowyer; chair of the Arizona Republican Presidential Electors Nancy Cottle; secretary of the electors Lorraine Pellegrino, former Senate candidate Jim Lamon; former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee Robert Montgomery and member of Gila County Arizona Republican Party Samuel Moorhead.
The indictment also included seven redacted individuals who Mayes said have yet to be served.
In December 2020, the group of 11 met and recorded themselves signing a document logging 11 electoral votes for Trump, despite then Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Gov. Doug Ducey already cementing President Joe Biden’s narrow victory. They 11 declared themselves to be “duly elected and qualified” electors.
The indictment alleges that prior to signing, the defendants “raised false claims of widespread election fraud in Arizona to pressure election officials to change the outcome of a democratic election” and lodged a lawsuit, among eight total, challenging Biden’s win.
“Defendants deceived the citizens of Arizona by falsely claiming that those votes were contingent only on a legal challenge that would change the outcome of the election. In reality, Defendants intended that their false votes for Trump Pence would encourage Pence to reject the Biden-Harris votes on January 6, 2021, regardless of the outcome of the legal challenge,” the indictment reads. “The scheme failed when Vice President Michael Pence accepted all certified Biden-Harris votes on January 6, 2021.”
The charges against Ariona’s slate of “fake electors” follows criminal charges against those who participated in similar efforts in Nevada, Georgia and Michigan. Mayes’ investigation into the 11 fake electors started soon after she took office in early 2022, following more than a year of inaction from former Attorney General Brnovich.
Mayes told reporters earlier this month, “We got a late start here in Arizona because my predecessor for whatever reason decided not to investigate this case. So, we were essentially two years behind.”
In a video statement released today, Mayes said her office “took the necessary time to thoroughly piece together the details of the events … they followed the facts where they led.”
Hoffman said in a written statement to the Arizona Capitol Times, that Mayes had “unsurprisingly … weaponized the once respected Attorney General’s office to deliver an indictment of her Republican political opponents years after the events at issue, long after other Democrat prosecutors made their decisions, and right before Arizona’s primary elections.”
He continued, “Let me be unequivocal, I am innocent of any crime, I will vigorously defend myself, and I look forward to the day when I am vindicated of this naked political persecution by the judicial process.”
Kern did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, the state Republican party called the indictments “a blatant and unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial power.”
Mayes said, “Arizona’s election was free and fair. The people of Arizona elected President Biden, and those unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury, allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency. Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for and I was elected to uphold the law of this state.”
The Associated Press determined the identities of the unnamed defendants based on their descriptions in the document.
One is an attorney “who was often identified as the Mayor” and spread false allegations of election fraud, which clearly describes Giuliani. Another is Trump’s “ chief of staff in 2020,” which describes Meadows.
Descriptions of other unnamed defendants point to Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations; John Eastman, a lawyer who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election; and Christina Bobb, a lawyer who worked with Giuliani. Eastman and Bobb did not respond to text messages seeking comment, nor did a lawyer who is representing Roman in a case in Georgia.
