Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes faces an end-of-week deadline to decide whether to move forward with the criminal case she brought against Arizona’s so-called fake electors.
The case concerns the Trump allies who were indicted by a grand jury on fraud and other felony charges for sending a document to Washington falsely claiming President Donald Trump defeated former President Joe Biden in Arizona in 2020.
Prosecutors allege that was part of a larger scheme to undermine the results of the election.
The “fake electors,” including former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and current state Sen. Jake Hoffman, were originally indicted by a grand jury in April 2024. But a lower court judge sent the case back to the grand jury earlier this year after finding prosecutors did not adequately explain some evidence to the jurors who handed down the indictment.
Specifically, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers agreed with attorneys for the defendants, who argued prosecutors didn’t fully explain the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which the defendants claim provided them with a legal framework to file the document claiming Trump won Arizona as cases challenging the election results played out in court.
After the Arizona Court of Appeals declined to review Myers’ decision, Mayes now faces a Nov. 21 deadline to appeal that ruling to the state Supreme Court. And she still isn’t saying whether she will ask the high court to overturn Myers’ order and keep the original indictment in place.
“We're still in the process of doing all the analysis that goes into a filing like this in this case, but I continue to be very, very committed to this case,” Mayes said. “I don't think there is anything more important than standing up for our democracy than making sure that no one, regardless of who they are, attempts to undermine an election.”
But she did caution against inferring her next steps based on comments she made on 12News earlier this month that led to some reports speculating that she could be preparing to drop the case.
“Well, I guess I would caution folks against reading into my comments,” Mayes said in response to those reports.
She also said President Trump’s recent decision to pardon dozens of allies, including Arizona’s “fake electors, isn’t impacting her decision. Presidential pardons only affect federal charges, not cases in state courts.
“No, I would say that what the president did does not factor into what I'm going to do going forward,” Mayes said.
Mayes said her office will announce its decision later this week.
If Mayes doesn’t appeal the decision or the Supreme Court upholds Myers’ order, the attorney general will have to decide whether to seek another grand jury indictment, file new charges or drop the case altogether.
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