Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, will be called as a witness in the upcoming "fake electors" trial in the state.
Four years ago, then-Gov. Ducey visibly ignored a call from former President Donald Trump as he was certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona.
Ducey later said he returned Trump's call after the formal canvass.
"The president has got an inquisitive mind,'' Ducey said at the time.
"When he calls, he's always got a lot of questions,'' the governor said. "I give him honest answers, direct feedback and my opinion when its necessary.''
But he declined to say more about that post-canvass conversation other than to say that, during that call, Trump did not ask him to set aside the state's results.
Prosecutors will likely use Ducey’s testimony to bolster arguments against the Trump aides and 11 Arizona Republicans charged with fraud and conspiracy in a purported scheme to keep Trump in office.
Former House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who said he refused to call a special session to deny Biden Arizona's electoral ballots, is also on the witness list.
Bowers said the then-president laid out broad claims of fraud. And Bowers said both told him that they understood that there was a legal way for him to toss out the election results and grant them to Trump, or at least deny Biden the 11 electoral votes.
He refused to call a special session.
Four Republicans who were on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors who were pressured by Trump or his allies to throw out the vote tally also are on the witness list.
So is Vince Leach. He was a Republican state senator from Tucson when Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, an attorney with the Trump campaign, showed up at the Senate after the election to meet with GOP lawmakers, made claims about fraud and asked lawmakers to act.
There also are several officials and managers of Trump's 2020 campaign on the witness list.
Also on that list is Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney for the Trump campaign, who, along with the former president, was an unindicted co-conspirator.
According to the indictment, Chesebro "drafted memos that encouraged having the fake electors vote on Dec. 14, 2020,'' the date when the real electors were casting their ballots, not just in Arizona but also in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin.
Chesebro had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors here and elsewhere.
But that cooperation didn't keep kept Chesebro from being indicted earlier this month in Wisconsin along with other Trump allies in that state's own investigation.
The trial is set for October in Maricopa County Superior Court.
