Mayes wants DOJ’s Trump election interference case file to help prosecute AZ fake electors

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Arizona’s 11 fake electors sign a document in Phoenix on Dec. 14 2020, falsely claiming that they were the state’s electors and that Donald Trump won the presidential election in Arizona. Screenshot via AZGOP

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is again asking the U.S. Department of Justice to share with her office its case file and report from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

In the letter, sent Sunday, Mayes proffers that the contents of the DOJ’s investigation will “undoubtedly” assist in her office’s prosecution of the 18 people indicted by a grand jury in Arizona’s “fake elector” scheme. 

Mayes’ request came just days after Smith submitted his investigative report on President-elect Trump and then resigned from the Department of Justice, ahead of Trump’s inauguration next week.

After he won the November presidential race, the DOJ withdrew its election interference case against Trump for his alleged role in orchestrating attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

In April, an Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people for their involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the Grand Canyon State after Democrat Joe Biden won by around 10,000 votes

Mayes previously requested the DOJ’s documents in the election interference case against Trump, but at that point Smith said he wasn’t ready or able to share his files. 

In the letter, Mayes said she was revisiting her request since the DOJ’s case against Trump is no longer active and the department is preparing to release Smith’s report. 

All 11 of Arizona’s fake electors, who signed bogus documents claiming that Trump won the 2020 election after Trump’s campaign allegedly urged them to do so, were indicted. Some Trump campaign members and White House staffers were also indicted. 

“Today, my office has one of the only remaining cases that include charges against national actors,” Mayes wrote in the letter. “I have held steadfast to prosecuting the grand jury’s indictment because those who tried to subvert democracy in 2020 must be held accountable.” 

She went on to write that Smith’s file would help hold those involved accountable, as well as possibly exonerate them. 

“To be sure that my office has all incriminating and exculpatory evidence possessed by (the) Special Counsel, I am requesting you disclose to my office (Smith’s) entire file, including the final report in the Election Case,” Mayes wrote.

Mayes also pointed out in her letter than a Maricopa County Superior Court judge in October granted a certificate of need to Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who was indicted in Arizona’s fake elector case, saying that he required some of the documents in Smith’s case against Trump for his own defense. 

The 11 fake electors indicted in the Arizona case are: 

• Kelli Ward, former AZGOP chairman
• Arizona Sen. Jake Hoffman, leader of the Arizona Freedom Caucus
• Arizona Sen. Anthony Kern, member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus
• Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point USA CEO
• Michael Ward, husband of Kelli Ward  
• Nancy Cottle, a Republican who’s been active in local politics for a decade
• James Lamon, a failed 2022 U.S. Senate candidate
• Robert Montgomery, former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee
• Samuel Moorhead, former chairman of Gila County Republican Party 
• Lorraine Pellegrino, former president of the Ahwatukee Republican Women
• Gregory Safsten, former executive director of the AZGOP

Former Trump staffers and campaign members also indicted in the case are: 

• Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for Trump and one of the main points of contact for the Trump campaign as it sought to overturn the 2020 election and ensure Trump would serve a second term
• Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff in 2020
• Christina Bobb, the Republican National Committee’s senior counsel for election integrity and a former attorney for the Trump campaign who was accused in the indictment of making “false claims of widespread election fraud in Arizona and in six other states.” 
• John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who was disbarred in California for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 
• Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump aide who is still one of the former president’s advisors.
• Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for the Trump campaign and a conservative media personality who was censured last year for making false statements about the 2020 election, and who pleaded guilty in October to a felony charge in Georgia for her attempts to overturn the election results. 
• Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign aide who was also indicted in the Georgia case.

This post was originally authored and published by Caitlin Sievers from AZ Mirror via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.