Former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer Rudy Giuliana, and 16 other Trump allies have been indicted in Arizona for their alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
In addition to Meadows and Giuliana, the indictment named Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward, state Senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, Chief Operating Officer of Turning Point Action Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, James Lamon, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino, Gregory Safsten, Michael Ward, Jenna Ellis, Boris Epshteyn, Mike Roman, John Eastman, and Christina Bobb, according to the Washington Post.
Those indicted were charged with multiple felonies, including conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices, fraudulent schemes and practices, and forgery, the Daily Wire reported.
In a statement on the indictments, Kris Mayes, attorney general of Arizona, insisted the 2020 election was “free and fair.”
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“Unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury, allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency,” Mayes said. “After the general election on November 3, 2020, the defendants and other unindicted co-conspirators raised false claims of widespread voter fraud in Arizona to pressure elections officials to change the outcome of a transparent free and fair democratic election. Those efforts ultimately failed when officials stood firm, followed their statutory duties, and officially certified Arizona’s election on November 30, 2020.”
“The defendant Republican presidential electors allegedly plotting with additional defendants, then voted for Mr. Trump and Vice President Pence on December 14, 2020, falsely claiming to be the duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States from the state of Arizona,” she added. “These defendants deceived the citizens of Arizona by falsely claiming that those votes were contingent only on a legal challenge that would change the outcome of the election. In reality, the defendants intended that the false votes for Trump and Pence would encourage Vice President Pence to reject the certified Biden-Harris electors’ votes regardless of the result of any legal challenge.”
