Well, the breaking news of the night is that Donald
Trump's name appears in another indictment,
this one in Arizona. The Attorney General of Arizona has
charged 11 Republican faker electors and seven Trump associates,
including Mark Meadows and Rudolph Giuliani,
with a criminal conspiracy involving several felonies.
The indictment says it was,
quote, a scheme or artifice to defraud by preventing the
lawful transfer of the presidency of the United States,
keeping President Donald J Trump in office against the will
of Arizona voters,
and depriving Arizona voters of their right to vote and
have their votes counted under the United States Constitution,
Arizona Constitution Article 7. Donald Trump also appears later in
the indictment
in the detailed description of the crimes as
Unindicted Co conspirator One quote defendants attempts to declare Unindicted
Co Conspirator One and Pence the winners of the 2020
presidential election contrary to voter intent,
and the law involved numerous other charged and uncharged Co
conspirators.
The names of all of the defendants,
who are residents of Arizona were revealed publicly in the
indictment,
but the names of seven other out of state defendants
are still redacted since they have not yet been served
with the indictment or weren't yet served with the indictment
when it was released. Mark Meadows name is redacted in
the indictment,
but it could not be more obvious in this line
that begins with a redaction and says
redaction was unindicted Co conspirator One's chief of staff in
2020.
Mystery solved. The other Trump associates easily identifiable from the
description of their actions in the indictment are attorneys John
Eastman and Jenna Ellis,
Trump aide Boris Epstein, Christina Bob,
and Trump campaign operative Mike Roman.
The indictment says defendants and unindicted Co conspirators schemed to
prevent the lawful transfer of the Presidency to keep unindicted
Co conspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona's
voters. This scheme would have deprived Arizona voters of their
right to vote and have their votes counted.
Republican presidential electoral Defendants then voted for President Donald Trump
and Vice President Michael Pence on December
14th, 2020, falsely claiming to be the duly elected and
qualified electors for President and Vice President from over the
United States from the State of Arizona.
Defendants deceived the citizens 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, Defendants intended that their false votes for Trump,
Pence, would encourage Pence to reject the Biden Harris votes
on January
6th, 2021, regardless of the outcome of the legal challenge.
The scheme failed when Vice President Michael Pence accepted all
certified Biden Harris votes on January
6th, 2021. The indicted fake electors include Kelly Ward,
who was the chair of the Arizona Republican Party who
was indicted along with her husband Michael Ward as a
fake elector.
2 Republican members of the state legislature have been indicted
as fake electors Jacob Hoffman and Anthony Kern.
For anyone who still needs a lesson in how much
your vote matters,
the Democratic Attorney General of the state of Arizona won
her election by
280 votes,
280 votes out of two and a half million votes
cast.
So
if a couple 100 people
didn't get to vote that day or voted differently in
that election,
we would not be reading these indictments tonight.
Tonight,
Arizona's Attorney General Chris Mays
announced the indictments.
Hi, I'm Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays.
Let me start by thanking everyone for your patience as
we conducted A thorough and professional investigation over the past
13 months into the fake electoral scheme in our state.
I understand for some of you today didn't come fast
enough,
and I know I'll be criticized by others for conducting
this investigation at all.
But as I have stated before and will say here
again today,
I will not allow American democracy to be undermined.
We're here because justice demands an answer to the efforts
that the defendants and other unindicted Co conspirators allegedly took
to undermine the will of
Arizona's voters during the 2020 presidential election.
Arizona's election was free and fair.
The people of Arizona elected President Biden
unwilling to accept this fact.
The defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed
to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency.
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 30th,
2020, 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. As you will recall,
none of the legal challenges filed in Arizona State and
federal courts regarding the 2020 election were remotely successful at
any stage of the case.
That scheme failed when Vice President Pence upheld the rule
of law and accepted all certified Biden Harris votes on
January
6th, 2021. A state grand jury made-up of everyday regular
Arizonans has now handed down felony indictments for all 11
Republican electors as well as several others connected to this
scheme. These charges include fraud,
forgery, and conspiracy. These charges are Class 2,
four and five felonies. These are serious indictments.
Our office will continue its investigation into the efforts to
illegally subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.