Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes released an indictment Wednesday evening alleging that 18 people were involved in a “fake elector scheme” during the 2020 election, allegedly including previous connections to former President Donald Trump.
Mayes took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to post a video claiming that the 18 defendants within the indictment, along with “other unindicted co-conspirators” allegedly attempted to “undermine the will” of the state’s voters during the 2020 election. (RELATED: ‘Trial By Ambush’: Former Federal Prosecutors Say Alvin Bragg’s Strategy Is Unlike Anything They’ve Seen Before)
“We’re here because justice demands an answer to the efforts that the defendants and other unindicted co-conspirators allegedly took to undermine the will of Arizona’s voters during the 2020 presidential election. Arizona’s election was free and fair. The people of Arizona elected President Biden. Unwilling to accept this fact the defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency,” Mayes stated.
A state grand jury, made up of everyday, regular Arizonans, has handed down felony indictments in the ongoing investigation into the fake elector scheme in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Nu8GcD4ZqJ
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) April 24, 2024
“Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for and I was elected to uphold the law of the state. The scheme, had it succeeded, would have deprived Arizona’s voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president. It effectively would have made their right to vote meaningless,” she continued.
Within the charges released, 11 Arizona Republicans are named for allegedly submitting a document to Congress which falsely declared that Trump beat President Joe Biden in the state’s election, according to Fox 10.
Those affiliated with the state’s GOP party charged in this case reportedly include in part former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward and husband Michael Ward, Turning Point USA executive Tyler Bowyer, Arizona Federation of Republican Women VP Nancy Cottle and State Sens. Jacob Hoffman and Anthony Kern, the indictment reads. Former Senate candidate James Lamon, former Cochise County Republican Committee Chairman Robert Montgomery, precinct committee member Samuel Moorhead, Ahwatukee Republican Women President Lorraine Pellegrino and former Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Gregory Safsten have also been charged, the document continues, according to the outlet.
The charges come as Mayes’ year-long investigation came to an end, joining three other states, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada, in seeking accountability from those allegedly involved in the 2020 elector strategy, The Washington Post reported. During a state GOP electors meeting on Dec. 14, 2020, members had allegedly signed a certificate claiming they were “duly elected and qualified” electors who believed Trump won the state election and sent the documents to Congress and National Archives, which were dismissed, according to Fox 40.
“Before an investigation had even been conducted and with no evidence, Kris Mayes declared that she believed electors such as myself were guilty of a crime, that it was her job to get Biden re-elected, and that she would control the timing of the indictment,” Hoffman told Fox 10 in a response to the allegations.
“Now, unsurprisingly, we see that she has 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. 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,” Hoffman told the outlet.
The additional names were redacted from the indictment due to charges not being released to them, Fox 40 reported. The Washington Post reported that they were allegedly seven attorneys or aides associated with Trump. These names allegedly included former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn, former campaign staffer Mike Roman, and attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Christina Bobb, according to the outlet.
Trump was reportedly not named in the document, but Mayes alleged him to be a co-conspirator in the allegations.
Not all Trump connections responded to a request for comment from the Post. George Terwilliger, an attorney for Meadows, told the outlet that if his client “is named in this indictment, it is a blatantly political and politicized accusation and will be contested and defeated.” Charles Burnham, Eastman’s legal counsel, relayed that his client “is innocent of criminal conduct in Arizona or any other place and will fight these charges as he has all the other unjust accusations leveled against him.” Giuliani’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, told the Post the indictment is a “continued weaponization of our justice system should concern every American, as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.”