An Arizona Superior Court grand jury indicted Trump’s 2020 electors and those who colluded in the elector scheme on nine felony charges related to conspiracy, fraud, and forgery on Tuesday.
The 11 electors indicted were Kelli Ward, former AZGOP Chair, and her husband, Michael Ward; Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point USA COO; Nancy Cottle, Arizona Trump electors chair; State Senators Jake Hoffman (in 2020, state representative-elect) and Anthony Kern; Jim Lamon, former 2022 Senate candidate; Robert Montgomery, former Cochise County Republican Committee leader; Samuel Moorhead, former Gila County Republican Party leader; Lorraine Pellegrino, former Arizona Trump electors secretary, Arizona Federation of Republican Women leader, and Republican National Committee delegate; and Gregory Safsten, former AZGOP executive director and Congressman Andy Biggs’ deputy chief of staff.
Seven others were also indicted on felony charges, but their names were redacted. Based on the descriptions of the seven, the individuals named were Christina Bobb, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Boris Epshteyn, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and Mike Roman.
The indictment also listed five unindicted, unnamed coconspirators: one identifiable as former President Donald Trump, along with two former members of the Arizona legislature, a Trump campaign attorney, and another Trump campaign attorney from Arizona.
Beyond claiming to be the duly elected and qualified electors for the 2020 election and casting their votes for Trump, some of the 11 electors were identified for additional actions they took in the voting scheme.
Ward was identified as the organizer of the Trump elector votes and one of the individuals who pressured Vice President Mike Pence to accept their votes. Hoffman wrote a letter to Pence urging the vice president to delay acceptance of Arizona’s Democrat elector votes. Kern pressured Arizona officials and Pence to accept the Republican electors’ votes. Safsten assisted Ward in organizing the elector votes.
The indictment accused the 11 electors of raising false claims of widespread election fraud immediately after the 2020 presidential election in order to pressure election officials to change the final vote outcome.
The indictment further accused the 11 of falsely claiming to Arizona citizens that their elector votes for former President Trump were legal and contingent only on a legal challenge that would alter the 2020 election outcome. The indictment then alleged that the 11 truly hoped their elector votes would convince former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the votes for now-President Joe Biden.
“[D]efendants wanted Pence to either declare [Trump] the winner of the election, delay the proceeding and have individual state legislatures determine their electors, or have Congress resolve any claimed uncertainty about the validity of election results in Arizona and six other states in [Trump’s’] favor,” read the indictment.
The AZGOP issued a statement deriding the indictments as a politically motivated abuse of legal authority, and as election interference regarding the upcoming 2024 election.
“Today’s indictments by Attorney General Kris Mayes represent a blatant and unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial power, aimed solely at distracting the public from the critical policy debates our country should be focusing on as we approach the 2024 election,” stated the AZGOP.
Our official statement regarding AG Kris Mayes' politically motivated indictments and blatant abuse of legal authority aimed to disrupt, distract, and interfere in the 2024 election. pic.twitter.com/9WeC0wtQN0
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) April 25, 2024
Conversely, Mayes said in a video announcement of the indictment that the electors had engaged in election interference in 2020 by allegedly scheming to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency.
“I will not allow American democracy to be undermined,” said Mayes. “We are 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.”