Republican activist becomes first person to be convicted in Arizona’s fake elector case
PHOENIX — A Republican activist who signed a document falsely claiming Donald Trump won Arizona in 2020 has become the first person convicted in the state’s voter fraud case.
Loraine Pellegrino, a former chairwoman of the group Ahwatukee Republican Women, has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false document, Arizona Attorney General’s Office spokesman Richie Taylor said Tuesday, declining to comment further. Documents documenting her guilty plea have not yet been released by the court. However, court records show that Pellegrino was sentenced to unsupervised probation. She faced nine felony charges for the plea.
Seventeen other people were charged in the case, including 10 other Republicans who signed a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed that Trump won Arizona in the 2020 election. President Joe Biden won Arizona with 10,457 votes. Joshua Kolsrud, an attorney representing Pellegrino, said in a statement that his client has accepted responsibility for her actions. “Loraine Pellegrino’s decision to accept a plea to a lesser charge reflects her desire to move on and put this matter behind her,” Kolsrud said.
On Monday, former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, joined a Cooperation with prosecutors asking for her charges to be dropped. The remaining suspects, including Giuliani and Trump’s presidential chief of staff Mark Weidenhave pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
Pellegrino and ten other people nominated to become Republican electors for Arizona gathered in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to sign the false document. A one minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.
Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia And Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges in connection with the fake voter scheme.
Arizona Authorities revealed the felony charges in late April. In all, charges were filed against 11 Republicans who filed the document falsely stating that Trump had won Arizona, five lawyers with ties to the former president and two former Trump associates.
Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case, but was named in the indictment as an unindicted accomplice.