Grand jury indicts Arizona Republicans for fraud in 2020 'fake elector' scheme
Trump allies in Arizona falsely posed as presidential electors in an attempt to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.
An Arizona grand jury has brought charges of fraud and forgery against multiple Republicans in the state for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, announced Wednesday that Kelli Ward, Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, James Lamon, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino, Gregory Safsten, and Michael Ward have been indicted.
Arizona lawmakers Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman are also among the defendants listed in the indictment.
Several defendants in the indictment have been redacted by the AG's office.
The indictment alleges the defendants engaged in a scheme to keep Donald Trump as president after Joe Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020.
The alleged scheme involved pressuring elected officials to change the outcome of Arizona's election. When those efforts failed, the defendants submitted certificates of "false" votes for Trump.
"Defendants intended that their false votes for Trump-Pence would encourage (Mike) Pence to reject the Biden-Harris votes on January 6, 2021," the indictment states.
Then-Vice President Mike Pence ended up certifying the Biden-Harris votes.
The indictment also redacts the name of unindicted co-conspirators, but makes it clear by describing their positions who many of them are: former President Trump, Trump attorneys Christina Bobb, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani; Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows and top Trump 2020 campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn and campaign aide Mike Roman.
"Defendants and their unindicted coconspirators deceived the public with false claims of election fraud in order to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency," the indictment states.
Hoffman, who represents the Queen Creek and east Mesa areas, accused Mayes of "weaponizing" her office to go after political opponents.
"Let me be unequivocal, I am innocent of any crime, I will vigorously defend myself, and I look forward to the day when I am vindicated of this naked political persecution by the judicial process," Hoffman said in a statement.
The criminal indictment charges the 11 named defendants with the felony offenses of conspiracy, fraud and forgery. The charging document can be read below:
11 'Fake' electors Who are they?
Here’s what we know about the central figures, based on reporting and research by 12News, as well as reporting by the Washington Post, Politico, and the New York Times:
Kelli Ward, Arizona Republican Party chair from 2019 until 2023. Ward acted as a go-between for the Trump White House in its pressure campaign to overturn Arizona’s presidential vote in 2020.
Michael Ward, husband of Kelli Ward.
State Sen. Jake Hoffman of Queen Creek. Hoffman leads the Legislature’s far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus. He followed up on his vote as a fake elector with a two-page letter to Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 5, 2021, urging Pence to order that Arizona’s presidential electors be decided by a vote of the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Jim Lamon, a former U.S. Senate candidate who was a major funder of the state Republican Party. Lamon lost the 2022 Senate Republican primary to Blake Masters.
Tyler Bowyer, Republican National Committeeman from Arizona. In February, Bowyer failed to persuade the Republican National Committee to cover the fake electors’ legal bills.
Both Hoffman and Bowyer have connections to Turning Point USA, the Scottsdale-based right-wing organization that has assumed a prominent place in Arizona Republican politics.
State Sen. Anthony Kern of Glendale, a Republican candidate for Congress in the West Valley’s Eighth District. Kern is the only fake elector who has publicly lashed out, accusing Mayes and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs of plotting to send him to jail. Kern spoke out in March on the Maricopa County Courthouse steps after he testified before the grand jury.
Greg Safsten, former executive director of Arizona Republican Party. He is a former deputy chief of staff for Republican Congressman Andy Biggs of Gilbert and was a legislative director for former GOP Congressman Matt Salmon of Mesa.
Robert Montgomery, former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee. Montgomery testified before the Arizona grand jury in late March, according to a news report.
Samuel I. Moorhead, second vice chair of the Gila County Arizona Republican Party.
Nancy Cottle and Loraine B. Pellegrino served as "chairperson" and "secretary" of the non-existent "Electoral College of Arizona" on documents that purported to represent the 11 Arizona electoral votes cast for President Donald Trump. Both Cottle and Pellegrino are longtime grassroots activists.
Cottle and Pellegrino, as well as the Wards, were all subpoenaed by the House of Representatives’ Jan. 6 Select Committee as part of its investigation of phony slates of electors in several states.
The fake electors scheme targeted seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — in an attempt by the Trump campaign to create false certificates signed by Trump electors, declaring him - not Biden - the winner of that state's electoral votes.
While those certificates were ignored, federal prosecutors called the effort "a corrupt plan to subvert the federal government function by stopping Biden electors’ votes from being counted and certified."
Trump lost Arizona by only about 10,000 votes in 2020, making him the first Republican candidate to lose the state in 24 years. Since then, Arizona has been a popular target for conspiracy theories falsely claiming that the election was stolen.
The charging decision marks the culmination of a yearlong investigation that began about four months after Mayes, a Democrat, succeeded two-term Republican AG Mark Brnovich.
Arizona's phony electors What did they do?
The people who tried to subvert Arizona's election process didn't try to hide it.
Arizona's 11 phony Trump electors convened around a conference table on Dec. 14, 2020, at Republican Party headquarters in central Phoenix. They posted a photo of it on Twitter.
Earlier that day, at about the same time, Joe Biden's 11 Arizona electors were certified at an undisclosed Phoenix location, for security reasons.
It was just six weeks after Biden had won Arizona by a razor-thin margin.
In public and, as would soon become clear, in private, Arizona Republicans and the defeated president were mounting an unprecedented pressure campaign to overturn the vote in the state's largest county, Maricopa, where Biden was the the first Democratic winner in 70 years.
7 battleground states targeted AZ is the 4th one to press charges
Arizona is the fourth state to bring charges against phony electors.
Prosecutors in Georgia, Nevada and Michigan have brought criminal charges against central figures in fake electors schemes there.
Phony electors in Pennsylvania and New Mexico avoided prosecution by filing elector certificates that were conditioned on Trump winning legal battles that would have overturned the 2020 election results.
In Wisconsin, a civil lawsuit against Chesebro and 10 Trump electors was settled in March.
Reactions How Arizonans reacted
Below are the reactions from Arizonans:
“I appreciate Attorney General Mayes’ leadership in ensuring that Arizona’s fake electors are held accountable. The individuals who played into and spread the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump are dangerous to our nation’s democracy," Democratic Leader Mitzi Epstein said. "The only way to prevent these types of future assaults on our republic is to send a clear message to those attempting to derail peaceful transfers of power: if you attempt to subvert the will of the voters and undermine our state or federal elections, there will be legal consequences.”
“Fake electors and insurrectionists have no place in our legislature. Today, the State Grand Jury and Attorney General Mayes did the right thing by holding the defendants who were involved in this conspiracy accountable for their actions,” Democratic Assistant Leader Juan Mendez said. “This is a strong first step in preventing future attacks on our democracy and ensuring that Arizonans are represented by people who will give them a voice at our Capitol, safeguard the basic integrity of state legislature, and protect the rights of every eligible voter in Arizona.”
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