An Arizona grand jury has indicted 18 allies of Donald Trump, including Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, and Boris Epshteyn, for their efforts to subvert the 2020 election. The indictment includes felony counts of conspiracy, fraud, and forgery, and describes Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator. The defendants allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Trump in office against the will of Arizona voters. Some of the other defendants include attorneys John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, and Christina Bobb, as well as Trump 2020 campaign operative Mike Roman.
Ken Chesebro, a Trump attorney who helped devise his post-election strategy, is described as an unindicted coconspirator, along with state Sen. Kelly Townsend, former state Rep. Mark Finchem, and former Arizona GOP lawyer Jack Wilenchik. Eleven Republicans who falsely posed as the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s victory are also among the indicted defendants. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has been leading the investigation, which has expanded to include prominent Trump allies at the national level.
Mayes is the fifth prosecutor to bring criminal charges in the multi-state effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 results. Special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with federal crimes, prosecutors in Georgia have charged Trump and his allies, and prosecutors in Michigan and Nevada have charged Republicans who posed as fake electors. Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman, and Ellis were also charged in the Georgia case. Bobb’s charges are notable as she was recently appointed to a senior position at the Republican National Committee focused on election integrity.
Mayes, who was elected as Arizona’s attorney general in 2022, initiated the investigation later than other states but has been making progress. Witnesses have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, including some of the false electors. Several figures from Trump’s national orbit, including Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, were questioned, although they were not targets of the probe. Witnesses described the grand jurors as coming from diverse political backgrounds, with some showing sympathy toward Democrats and others more conservative.
Overall, the grand jurors were described as energetic and proactive, driving substantial lines of questioning. While prosecutors focused on substantiating discrete pieces of evidence, the jurors were engaged and asked insightful questions. The investigation has been gathering momentum, with several high-profile allies of Trump being charged with crimes related to their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Despite the political diversity of the grand jurors, they appeared committed to pursuing justice in the case.
