New records obtained by The Arizona Republic reveal the behind-the scenes efforts by Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and state GOP Chair Kelli Ward to pressure the county supervisors,
Text messages and voicemails make clear Trump’s allies were fixated on how the supervisors were going to address what the Trump team deemed as voting irregularitie
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez | Arizona Republic
Then-President Donald Trump tried to speak directly with the chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in the weeks after the November 2020 election as his allies sought to change the election results in a state he narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
New records obtained by The Arizona Republic reveal the behind-the scenes efforts by Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and state GOP Chair Kelli Ward to pressure the county supervisors, who make up the elected body that oversees elections in the state’s most populous county.
The Republic obtained the material through a public information request to Maricopa Countyseeking all records documenting calls made to county supervisors from Trump, Giuliani, Sidney Powell and any other individuals representing the White House or the Trump campaign from Nov. 1, 2020, through late May.
In 2020, Biden flipped precincts that had voted for Trump by small margins in 2016, helping to deliver Biden the White House. It contributed to a loss Trump still has not accepted. He still hopes the Republican-commissioned ballot review in Arizona will vindicate his unfounded position.
Much of the attention from Trump’s allies was focused on Supervisor Clint Hickman, the 56-year-old lifelong Republican from a prominent West Valley family that runs an egg company.
At the time, Hickman chaired the five-member Republican-controlled board, a position that gave him the power to set agendas, hold hearings on the election process, and certify — or delay — the 2020 election results.
But others also felt the pressure, too.
