Attorneys for state Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) filed a motion to dismiss charges that he and other Arizona Republicans attempted to undermine President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump.
Tim La Sota, one of Hoffman’s attorneys, argued in a motion filed Monday that the indictments of Hoffman and 17 other participants in the so-called fake elector plot violate Arizona’s anti-SLAPP law.
SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation.” The law is designed to protect citizens from getting sued for exercising a constitutional right, like the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
La Sota argues Hoffman was executing that right when he, along with 10 other Arizona Republicans, signed a document proclaiming themselves as Arizona’s true electors — they were not — and requested that Congress refuse to certify Biden’s electoral college victory.
The state Legislature passed a bill in 2022 that altered the state’s anti-SLAPP statutes to include government officials and criminal charges, not just civil cases.
Hoffman is the latest defendant seeking to dismiss his indictment.
As of Wednesday afternoon, so had former state Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, as well as her husband Michael; Trump lawyer John Eastman; and former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon.
La Sota described Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ prosecution of the fake electors as “scorched earth political warfare.”
“The attorney general’s novel, overzealous, and retaliatory prosecution is also tied to Sen. Hoffman’s Republican colleagues’ efforts to conduct oversight of her office,” La Sota wrote.
As evidence that Mayes and that she wanted to punish Hoffman and the others, La Sota cites Mayes passed statements on the 2022 campaign trail, when she vowed to “immediately” investigate fake electors if elected as attorney general.
In response, a spokesman for Mayes said it was a state grand jury that handed down Hoffman’s indictment, not Mayes herself.
“The Attorney General’s Office conducted a thorough and professional investigation,” spokesman Richie Taylor said in a text.
As for Mayes’ past statements on the campaign trail, “elected prosecutors frequently make promises to investigate alleged crimes during the course of campaigns,” Taylor said.
