A group of prominent Republicans in Arizona, including former state GOP chair Kelli Ward and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, are facing charges of conspiracy, forgery, and fraud in connection with their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. The indictment alleges that Ward and others organized fake electors and submitted a document to Congress falsely claiming that Donald Trump had won Arizona, despite Joe Biden’s victory by over 10,000 votes. The defendants include five lawyers connected to Trump and two former Trump aides, with Giuliani being served notice of the indictment after several failed attempts. Trump himself was referenced as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.
The 11 individuals who posed as Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix in December 2020 to sign a certificate declaring themselves as the state’s true electors and asserting that Trump had won. A video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party, and the document was sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ultimately disregarded. Despite their efforts, multiple lawsuits challenging Biden’s victory in the state were dismissed by a federal judge who found the claims to be unsubstantiated. The defendants in the case, including Ward, Giuliani, and others, are scheduled to be arraigned in court on Tuesday.
One of the lawsuits filed by the fake electors sought to decertify the election results and prevent the state from sending its votes to the Electoral College. However, the judge concluded that the Republicans had failed to provide evidence to support their claims, leading to the dismissal of the case. The individuals involved in the signing of the certificate, who will be arraigned on Tuesday, include a mix of political figures, attorneys, and party members, such as state Sen. Anthony Kern, former county GOP chairman Robert Montgomery, and Trump’s 2020 director of Election Day operations Michael Roman. The arraignments are part of ongoing legal proceedings related to the attempt to overturn the election results.
Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump attorney Boris Epshteyn, and other individuals involved in the effort to challenge the election results in Arizona are also set to be arraigned in the coming days. The charges against these individuals mark the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with spreading false claims about voter fraud related to the 2020 election. The legal proceedings in Arizona highlight the continued fallout from the contentious election and the efforts by some Republicans to undermine the outcome in favor of Trump. The arraignments scheduled for the defendants will shed more light on their roles in the conspiracy and their attempts to overturn the election results in the state.
