Arizona State Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) announced the indictment of prominent Trump aides and allies in Arizona for their alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election. These include a fraudulent slate of electors to pledge Arizona's 11 electoral votes to Trump and high-profile individuals associated with his campaign.
A grand jury handed up the indictment Wednesday evening.
The indictees include Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and Republican political strategist and attorney Boris Epshteyn. Attorneys John Eastman, the architect of the fake electors plot, and Jenna Ellis, who already pleaded guilty in Georgia, were also charged. The slate of 11 fake electors include Kelli Ward, former Arizona Republican Party chair. (RELATED: State GOP Chairman Among Those Indicted In ‘Fake Electors' Case)
The 18 defendants in total face felony charges of conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices and fraudulent schemes and practices.
The indictment includes conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges, related to alleged attempts by the defendants to change the 2020 election results. Arizona is the fourth swing state to bring an elections case involving the activities of the Trump campaign in 2020, but only the second after Georgia to go beyond the fake electors whom the campaign deployed in swing states lost by Mr. Trump.
The former president, who is seeking another term, was also named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Arizona case.
“I understand for some of you today didn't come fast enough, and I know I'll be criticized by others for conducting this investigation at all,” Kris Mayes, Arizona's Democratic attorney general, said in a recorded statement. “But as I have stated before and will say here again today, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined. It's too important.”
Mr. Giuliani is Mr. Trump's former personal lawyer; Mr. Meadows was the White House chief of staff at the time of the 2020 election. They were among a number of defendants whose names were redacted from the indictment, though it was clear from the context and the descriptions who they were. For example, the passage referencing Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, said among other things that he was known as “the mayor.”
Read the indictment here.
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