Donald Trump is named as ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in new grand jury indictment filed against 11 Arizona ‘fake electors’ who ‘tried to overthrow Biden’s 2020 election win’

Former President Donald Trump has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in a new grand jury indictment against 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely declared Trump won the state in 2020.

Eleven Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely stating that Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election were charged Wednesday with conspiracy, fraud and forgery, marking the fourth state to file charges against “fake voters’.

Seven others were charged, but their names were redacted from the documents released by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Her office said the names will be released after charges against these people are filed.

Trump himself is “unindicted co-conspirator 1,” according to the document.

The eleven people nominated as Republican electors in Arizona gathered in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to sign a certificate stating that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and that Trump carried the state.

A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Republican Party of Arizona at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes. Of the eight lawsuits that unsuccessfully challenged Biden’s win in the state, one was filed by the eleven Republicans who would later sign the certificate declaring Trump the winner.

Their lawsuit asked a judge to stop certifying the results that gave Biden his victory in Arizona and block the state from sending them to the Electoral College.

In dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa said the Republicans lacked legal standing, waited too long to file their case and “failed to provide the court with factual support for their extraordinary claims.”

Days after that lawsuit was dismissed, the eleven Republicans participated in the signing of the certificates.

The charges in Arizona come after a series of charges against fake voters in other states.

In December one The Nevada grand jury has indicted six Republicans for a misdemeanor charge of presenting a false instrument for the filing and pronouncement of a forged instrument in connection with false certificates of election. They have pleaded not guilty.

Michigan’s attorney general in July reported a crime including forgery and conspiracy to commit election rigging against sixteen Republican fake voters.

One of them had their charges dropped after a cooperation agreement was reached, as did the other fifteen defendants. pleaded not guilty.

A state investigator testified Wednesday that he considers former President Donald Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani as unindicted co-conspirators in the Michigan fake voter plot.

Howard Shock, whose work led to forgery charges against more than a dozen people in Michigan, was cross-examined in Lansing as part of a hearing Wednesday to determine whether there is enough evidence to order a trail.

An attorney, Duane Silverthorn, listed a series of names and asked Shock if they were “unindicted co-conspirators,” meaning they were not charged but could have been part of an alleged plot to steal Michigan’s electoral votes in the column of Trump.

Shock answered “yes” to Trump, Meadows, Giuliani and some high-ranking Republicans.

In Michigan, authorities said more than a dozen Republicans sent certificates to Congress falsely declaring they were voters and that Trump was the winner of the state’s 2020 election, even though the results showed he had lost .

Trump will go on trial this week in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, after the jury selection process was completed last week.

In Georgia, Trump, Giuliani and others are charged with conspiracy in connection with filing a Republican voter certification in that state after the 2020 election.

Meadows is also charged in Georgia, but not with regard to the electoral system. They have pleaded not guilty.

An indictment by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith accusing Trump of conspiring to overturn the election also accuses the former president of a bogus voter scheme and identifies six unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators, including Giuliani.

In Wisconsin, ten Republicans posed as voters resolved a civil lawsuit, admitting that their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. There is no known criminal investigation in Wisconsin.

Trump was also sued in federal court in August over the fake voter scheme.

The indictment reads that when Trump failed to convince state officials to illegally influence the election, he and his Republican allies began recruiting a series of fake voters in battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to sign false certificates declaring that he, not Biden, had won their states.

In early January, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the state’s five Republican electors cannot be prosecuted under current law.

In New Mexico and Pennsylvania, fake voters added a caveat, saying the certificate of election was filed in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified voters. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania.

In Arizona, Mayes’ predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, conducted an investigation into the 2020 election, but voters’ false allegations were not part of that investigation, according to Mayes’ office.

In another election-related case brought by Mayes’ office, two Republican officials in a rural Arizona county who delayed collecting the results of the 2022 general election are facing felony charges.

a grand jury indicted Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby in November on one count of conspiracy and interference with an election official. Both pleaded not guilty.

The Republicans charged are Kelli Ward, GOP chair from 2019 to early 2023; state Sen. Jake Hoffman; Tyler Bowyer, a director of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, who is a member of the Republican National Committee; state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was photographed in restricted areas outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack and is now a candidate in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District; Greg Safsten, former executive director of the Republican Party of Arizona; Energy industry executive James Lamon, who lost a 2022 Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat; Robert Montgomery, 2020 Cochise County Republican Committee Chairman; Samuel Moorhead, a member of the Republican precinct committee in Gila County; Nancy Cottle, who served as first vice president of the Arizona Federation of Republican Women in 2020; Loraine Pellegrino, president of the Ahwatukee Republican Women; and Michael Ward, an osteopathic physician who is married to Kelli Ward.