Trump Allies Indicted in Arizona for Attempting To Overturn 2020 Election
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Arizona grand jury delivered an indictment on Wednesday evening, charging seven allies of former President Donald Trump and 11 “fake electors” who tried to cast false electoral votes in an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in the Grand Canyon State.
The 11 fake electors named in the indictment include a number of notable state Republicans, including former Arizona GOP chairwoman Kelli Ward, state RNC committeeman Tyler Bowyer, and state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern.
Seven other people were indicted, but not named, for their role in the alleged attempt to subvert the 2020 election. Their identities were named by multiple outlets based on identifying information in the indictment and include former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump campaign staffer Michael Roman and former Trump campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Boris Ephystein and Christina Bobbs.
A number of these figures — including Meadows, Giuliani, Eastman and Ellis — have been previously indicted in other states for their involvement in the myriad attempts by Trump and his closest allies to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. These include indictments in Georgia and Washington, D.C. Another indictment in Nevada was handed down in December of 2023 to six fake electors for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
As POLITICO notes, Bobb’s inclusion in the Arizona indictment is significant as she was recently promoted to a senior position at the Republican National Committee (RNC) focused on election integrity. The RNC has increased its efforts to attack voting rights in the courts this election cycle, though a recent memo obtained by Democracy Docket revealed that the committee appears to be greatly inflating those efforts.
The Arizona indictment charges those involved in the election scheme with nine felony counts, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery and alleges that Trump and his allies engaged in a conspiracy with the goal of preventing the transfer of power and keeping the former president in office “against the will of Arizona voters.”
The 58-page indictment outlines the timeline of events in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 general election in which Trump’s campaign team and attorneys attempted to overturn the results of the election, from pressuring county and state election officials and former Gov. Doug Ducey (R), to the “Fake Elector Scheme.”
That scheme, according to the indictment, started on or around Nov. 4, 2022 with a series of texts and memos describing how the state’s GOP could send their own slate of electors for certification on Jan. 6, 2021, instead of ones to cast their vote for then-President-elect Joe Biden, who officially won the election in Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.
“The people of Arizona elected President Biden,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) said in a video statement announcing the indictment. “Unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency.”