PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has temporarily dismissed her high-profile criminal case against allies of President Donald Trump accused of participating in the state’s 2020 “fake electors” effort, following a series of court setbacks that forced prosecutors back to the grand jury process. The move pauses one of the last major state-level prosecutions arising from efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, though Mayes insists the case is far from over.
The dismissal announced Thursday affects a sweeping indictment that targeted 18 defendants, including former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, attorneys John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, and several Arizona Republicans who signed documents claiming Trump had won Arizona’s electoral votes despite Joe Biden’s certified victory in the state.
As the Arizona Mirror reports:
Also indicted were state Sen. Jake Hoffman, former state Sen. Anthony Kern, Tyler Bowyer, the COO of Turning Point Action and Kelli Ward, who at the time of the effort to undermine Biden’s win was the chair of the Arizona Republican Party.
Attorneys for the fake electors told a trial court that the indictments were invalid because prosecutors didn’t give jurors a copy of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which they said absolved them of any wrongdoing. The 138-year-old law sets up how to count electoral votes and includes a legal framework for Congress to resolve disputes that arise when a state sends multiple slates of electors. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers agreed with the defendants, sending the indictment back to the grand jury and effectively killing the case.
Rather than abandoning the prosecution, Mayes said her office intends to present the case to a new grand jury and seek a fresh indictment. The legal maneuver was prompted by a court-imposed deadline after prosecutors lost an appeal concerning defects in the original grand jury proceedings.
Court Ordered Case Back to Grand Jury
The prosecution’s troubles began when defense attorneys successfully argued that the original grand jury had not been shown critical portions of federal election law relevant to the defendants’ claims that they believed their actions were lawful. A Maricopa County judge agreed and ordered the case returned to a grand jury.
Mayes attempted to overturn that ruling through the appellate courts, but both the Arizona Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court ultimately declined to intervene, leaving prosecutors with little choice but to start over.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s refusal earlier this month to hear the appeal dealt a significant blow to the case and created a tight timeline for prosecutors. Facing a deadline to begin new grand jury proceedings, Mayes opted to dismiss the existing indictment while preparing a new presentation.
Case Targeted Trump Allies and Arizona Republicans
The original indictment, handed down in April 2024, accused 18 defendants of fraud, forgery, conspiracy, and related offenses stemming from efforts to submit documents falsely asserting that Trump had won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election. Biden carried Arizona by roughly 10,500 votes, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1996.
According to prosecutors, the defendants knowingly attempted to undermine the state’s certified election results by creating and transmitting false electoral certificates to federal authorities. Defense attorneys have argued that the alternate slate of electors was intended as a contingency in case ongoing election challenges succeeded in court.
Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case, though prosecutors identified him as an unindicted co-conspirator in court filings.
Similar Cases Have Faltered Elsewhere
The Arizona prosecution has increasingly become one of the last remaining state-level fake elector cases still actively pursued.
Courts in Michigan and Georgia have dismissed major election-related prosecutions, while federal election-interference charges connected to the 2020 election were abandoned after Trump’s return to office. Legal challenges have also complicated similar proceedings in Nevada and Wisconsin.
The Arizona case has faced repeated delays from procedural disputes, appeals, judicial recusals, and pretrial motions. What was originally expected to become one of the most significant election-related trials in the country has instead spent much of the past two years tied up in litigation over grand jury procedures.
Mayes Vows to Continue
Despite the setback, Mayes has made clear she is not abandoning the prosecution.
Her office has indicated it will present the case again “in its entirety” to a new grand jury rather than narrowing the allegations or dropping charges altogether.
The decision ensures that the case will continue to cast a shadow over Arizona politics heading into the 2026 election cycle, where Mayes herself is seeking reelection. Republicans have repeatedly criticized the prosecution as politically motivated, while supporters argue it remains an important test of accountability for efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.
For now, the dismissal temporarily removes the case from the courts. But with prosecutors already preparing to return to a grand jury, the legal battle involving some of Trump’s closest allies appears poised to begin again rather than end.
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