Amid the ongoing legal battles surrounding allegations that the 2020 presidential election was rigged from both sides, a grand jury in Arizona has indicted 11 Republicans for their alleged involvement in election fraud.
The GOP group was one of several to file a lawsuit challenging the election results in the Grand Canyon State, which was won by Democrat President Joe Biden. A month after the election took place, these 11 individuals signed a document asserting they were “duly elected and qualified” election officials and claimed that Republican candidate Donald Trump had, in fact, won the state of Arizona.
This document was then sent to Congress, where it was later discarded after the official results were verified and declared Biden the victor. Although the effort failed to pick up traction, a total of 18 people were indicted on Wednesday April 24 on various charges surrounding the attempted interference, including fraud, forgery and conspiracy.
Six additional states have also investigated and scrutinized Republicans who submitted alternate electoral college documents in similar efforts to ensure that the documents existed in case the outcome of the 2020 election were reversed due to fraud.
Trump was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case. Those who received felony indictments—some of whose names were redacted due to legal proceedings, although their identity has been surmised based on other details in the documents—include Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, his campaign officials Boris Epshteyn and Mike Roman and attorneys Christina Bobb, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani.
Tyler Bowyer, the chief operating officer for the conservative organization Turning Point USA, was also indicted. The group’s founder, Charlie Kirk, reacted to the news on social media by encouraging Republicans to “keep pushing” forward despite the blow to the party’s impact. He also noted that, hours before the “massive indictment,” polling had shown leading GOP candidate Trump to be “up 5 [points] in Arizona” for the Nov. 2024 election.
In a video statement posted to X, Arizona’s Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the indictment, saying that “the plot to violate the law must be answered for,” despite “whatever” motivation may have been behind the Republicans’ actions.
She also emphasized that the election in Arizona was “free and fair” and, acknowledging backlash she would receive from both sides related to the drawn out investigation, declared that she had no intention of “allow[ing] American democracy to be undermined.”
A state grand jury, made up of everyday, regular Arizonans, has handed down felony indictments in the ongoing investigation into the fake elector scheme in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Nu8GcD4ZqJ
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) April 24, 2024
