(RightWing.org) – Eighteen allies and supporters of former president Donald Trump have just been indicted by an Arizona grand jury on charges linked to the 2020 presidential election. Among them are Trump’s former attorney Rudy Guiliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The charges concern an alleged “fake elector” conspiracy.
2020 Plot Angered Democrats
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Arizona became one of the leading battlegrounds in the dispute over who had won. Initially, Trump supporters pointed to a number of suspicious ballots as evidence of potential voter fraud. When Biden’s lead in the state grew to far more than the number of dubious ballots, most Republicans let the matter drop. However, when state officials certified the ballot as a win for Joe Biden, a group of hard-core Trump supporters refused to accept that — and came up with a bizarre idea to challenge it.
On December 14, 2020, a pro-Trump group, AZ Protect The Vote, delivered a certificate to the headquarters of the Arizona Republican Party in Phoenix. That certificate named eleven Trump allies, including the chair of the state GOP, two state senators, and two county Republican Party chairs, as the electors Arizona was putting forward to the Electoral College. The eleven signed it and forwarded the certificate to Congress and the National Archives.
Of course, the Electoral College ignored the certificate and recognized the electors certified by the state government, so the “conspiracy” never achieved anything. However, when Kristin Mayes took over as Arizona Attorney General in January 2023 she launched an investigation into it and set up a grand jury to probe the event. On April 23, that grand jury indicted Giuliani, Meadows and 16 others, including all 11 of the alternate electors.
The indictment lists nine charges — one count each of conspiracy and fraud, and seven of forgery. Based on the redacted copy that’s available it looks as if all the defendants have been indicted on all nine counts.
Trump himself isn’t facing any charges as a result of the grand jury’s decision, but the indictment refers to five “unindicted coconspirators” and it’s known that Trump is one of them. That makes this case another legal headache for him. If it comes to trial before November’s presidential election his name is sure to crop up repeatedly in the media, distracting attention from his campaign. Between his ongoing New York trial and the upcoming Georgia election interference case, he already has more than enough negative media coverage; he doesn’t need this on top.
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