Trump allies Giuliani, Meadows charged in 2020 Arizona ‘fake electors’ case
An Arizona grand jury on Wednesday returned an indictment against Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and several others for their alleged roles in a plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Eleven Arizona Republicans, including former state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward and state Sens. Jacob Hoffman and Anthony Kern, were hit with felony charges related to the so-called “fake electors” plot, state Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Wednesday.
Seven other names were redacted in the indictment because they hadn’t been served yet.
Those individuals have been identified by multiple outlets as Meadows, Giuliani and Trump 2020 campaign-linked lawyers and advisers Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and Michael Roman.
The charges against the 18 individuals include fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.
Trump is referred to as “Unindicted Coconspirator 1” in the charging document.
“In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as President on November 3, 2020,” the indictment states. “Unwilling to accept this fact, Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters.”
Meadows, Giuliani, Ellis, Eastman and Roman had previously been charged in Georgia by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over their alleged roles in an effort to overturn the Peach State’s 2020 election results. Trump, 77, was hit with 13 felony counts in the Georgia case.
Ward, Kern, Hoffman, were indicted along with Turning Points Action COO Tyler Bowyer, former Arizona GOP Executive Director Greg Safsten, energy industry executive James Lamon, former Cochise County GOP Chairman Robert Montgomery, Kelli Ward’s husband Michael Ward and Samuel Moorhead, Nancy Cottle, Loraine Pellegrino for signing a document in December of 2020 indicating that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump defeated Joe Biden in the state.
Biden carried the state by more than 10,000 votes and eight lawsuits challenging his Arizona victory were defeated in court.
Mayes’ yearlong investigation into the “fake electors” plot had been focused on local Republicans until late last year, according to the Washington Post.
In December, investigators met with attorney Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of the strategy, who provided Mayes’s team with previously unseen records, the outlet reported.
After meeting with Chesebro, Mayes widened her probe.
Chesebro was not charged in the Arizona case but pleaded not guilty to one felony count of participating in a conspiracy to file false documents in the Georgia probe.
The Arizona case is the fourth state-level indictment of Trump allies for their attempts to reverse the 2020 election results.
In December, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced the indictment of six Republicans on charges related to submitting false certificates to Congress declaring Trump to have won the state.
Another case against 16 pro-Trump electors is ongoing in Michigan, led by state Attorney General Dana Nessel.
There is the ongoing Georgia case, as well.
All are being handled by Democratic attorneys general or district attorneys.
“A state grand jury made up of everyday regular Arizonans, has now handed down felony indictments for all 11 Republican electors as well as several others connected to this scheme,” Mayes said in a statement.
“These are serious indictments, but this is the first hurdle the state must pass in our constitutional criminal justice system.
“We intend to prove these crimes were committed beyond a reasonable doubt.”
