The Arizona Supreme Court granted Attorney General Kris Mayes’ request to delay an upcoming deadline for her to decide the next steps in the so-called “fake electors” case.
Mayes had until Wednesday to decide whether to ask the high court to overturn a trial judge’s order sending the case back to the grand jury after an Arizona Court of Appeals panel declined to consider her request to review the case.
If she missed that deadline, it would have paved the way for the charges to be dropped against the defendants, who are accused of filing documents falsely claiming President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election in Arizona.
Last week, Mayes indicated she still had not decided whether to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
“We're analyzing it,” she said. “And obviously we got a couple of decisions from a couple of courts that we deeply disagree with and, you know, frankly, don't understand in terms of why these judges came down where they were.”
And on Monday, she asked the justices to delay the deadline as she continues to weigh her options, which includes asking a grand jury to re-indict the defendants after seeing new evidence the lower court judge says wasn’t presented the first time around.
The Supreme Court granted that request, extending the deadline to Nov. 21, despite opposition from attorneys for several of the defendants, including Rudy Giuliani, former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, former state Sen. Anthony Kern and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
“No further extensions of time will be granted absent extraordinary circumstances,” according to an order signed by Supreme Court Clerk Aaron Nash.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers tossed out the indictment and sent the case back to the grand jury in May after finding prosecutors did not adequately explain the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that is central to the defendants argument that they did not break the law when they sent documentation to Washington falsely claiming Trump defeated former President Joe Biden in Arizona.
Attorneys for the defendants argued the federal election law provided a legal pathway for them to submit the document as a “contingency” in the event court cases fueled by now-debunked claims of widespread voter fraud found Trump had actually won the election.
The case is currently paused pending Mayes’ decision on whether to appeal Myers’ order.
If she chooses not to appeal or the Supreme Court upholds Myers’ decision, prosecutors will have 15 days to bring the case back to the grand jury, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
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