An Arizona grand jury on Wednesday indicted former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, and five other former aides to former President Donald Trump on felony charges related to the Trump campaign’s objection to the 2020 election results. The indictment, which includes felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and forgery, also names Trump as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
Eleven additional Arizona Republicans who served as alternate electors have also been indicted, including former Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, and Arizona’s RNC committeeman Tyler Bowyer. Leftist prosecutors have routinely labeled alternate electors as “fake electors” before charging them with felony forgery and fraud crimes.
BREAKING: ARIZONA GRAND JURY INDICTS 11 REPUBLICANS IN FAKE ELECTOR CASE ON FRAUD, FORGERY AND CONSPIRACY CHARGES
THESE INCLUDE SENS. HOFFMAN AND KERN. pic.twitter.com/YbDQtO0OS2
— Cameron Arcand (@cameron_arcand) April 24, 2024
This has already been done in Michigan and Nevada, and will also be the case in Arizona, where defendants will face felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
“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,” the 58-page indictment reads.
In total, 18 Arizona Republicans and allies of former President Trump have been indicted. Other names include former Trump attorney
Donald Trump named "Unindicted Co-Conspirator" in Arizona election interference probe pic.twitter.com/Fg2Ghjdsw5
— BNO News (@BNONews) April 24, 2024
Mayes — who defeated Republican challenger Abe Hamadeh by less than 300 votes in 2022, in an election that saw numerous “machine issues” — announced the indictment in a video statement Wednesday.
“I will not allow American democracy to be undermined. It’s too important. The investigators and attorneys assigned to this case took the necessary time to thoroughly piece together the details of the events that began nearly four years ago. They followed the facts where they led, and I’m very proud of the work they’ve done to date,” she said.
“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,” Mayes continued. “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. 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.”
She went on to refer to the process of convening alternate electors — something with historical precedent in numerous American elections — as a “scheme.”
“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.”
America First Legal founder Stephen Miller slammed the latest indictment and asked why Republican prosecutors continue to do nothing in response. “Democrats continue their ruthless lawfare campaign to jail innocent political opponents. Instead of arresting Dem officials who violated election law in 2020 those who pursued legal transparent public remedies are being hauled away from their families and facing decades in jail,” Miller wrote in an X post.
“Does the GOP even understand what it is up against? Or is too focused on Ukraine to even notice?”
The defendants face decades in prison if convicted.
This is a developing story.