At least 12 allies of former President Donald Trump have been indicted in Phoenix on charges including conspiracy, fraud and forgery related to a alleged scheme to put to advance fake voters in the 2020 elections who supported Trump despite President Biden winning the state.
Rudy Giuliani is one of the defendants on the docket after his role served Friday evening as he left his 80th birthday party, and appeared virtually for the hearing. Other defendants include former Arizona Republican Party Chairman Kelli Ward, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb, former Turning Point USA youth director Tyler Bowyer, and Republican state election officials Arizona.
Trump, who is that? is currently being tried in an unrelated case in a New York criminal court on 34 felony counts of falsifying company records, is not among the defendants, but the indictment repeatedly names him as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” He has pleaded not guilty in the New York case.
The Arizona indictment alleges that the defendants “knowingly falsified, concealed, or obscured by any material fact or trick, scheme, or device, or made or used false writings or documents, knowing that such writings or documents were false, contain fictitious or fraudulent statements or statements. to wit: two certificates of voting for President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael Pence, submitted by Republican voters in Arizona to the Arizona Secretary of State.
Ross D. Franklin / AP
The indictment centers on the submission of a document to Congress declaring – falsely – that Trump won the state. Mr. Biden won the state by more than 10,000 votes. Ward is accused of orchestrating the effort, the indictment alleges, and wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept the false filing as valid.
According to the indictment, on December 14, 2020, the electors met in Phoenix and signed that certificate, claiming to be the “duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of the State of Arizona.” The indictment alleges that they also posted a video to social media that day stating, “We are the voters representing the legal voters of Arizona! #Trump2020 #MAGA.”
In announcing the charges, Arizona's Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said that “the scheme, had it succeeded, would have deprived Arizona voters of the right to have their votes counted for their chosen president. ”
Former Trump lawyer Johannes Oostmanaccused of masterminding the scheme to convince Congress not to accept the election results, pleaded not guilty last Friday to charges of fraud, conspiracy and forgery.
Arizona is one of seven states Trump lost in 2020, where his allies are accused of planning to appoint alternate electors for the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when lawmakers met to count Electoral College votes.
Trump allies have also been sued over similar alleged bogus election schemes in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
In addition to the criminal charges in New York, so has Trump charged with dozens of other crimes in three other jurisdictions, including federal charges related to the January 6, 2021 riot and charges in Fulton County, Georgia, related to alleged election interference there. He has pleaded not guilty and denies all allegations. In addition to Trump, charges include Giuliani, Meadows, Ellis, Eastman and Michael Roman, all of whom have been charged in Arizona among 19 defendants in Georgia.
