Robert Anglen
Arizona Republic
Will Arizona be next?
A Georgia grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 others Monday on charges related to their efforts to reverse the results of the state’s 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors called it a “criminal enterprise.”
The indictment accused Trump and his allies of a coordinated plan to have state officials essentially spike Joe Biden’s victory and award the state to Trump. His strategy included the recruitment of fake presidential electors for Congress to count and a phone call urging state election officials to “find” him more votes, according to a House investigation.
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In Arizona, Biden’s margin of victory was even tighter than in Georgia, and pressure campaigns to flip the election to Biden emerged immediately after votes were counted. The state’s fake electors and the Arizona Senate’s hand recount of 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots remain under investigation by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Reached Monday night, a spokesperson for Attorney General Kris Mayes said she would have no comment on the Georgia indictment.
Attorney General Kris Mayes answers questions during an interview on March 14, 2023, in her office at 2005 N. Central Avenue in Phoenix.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell on Tuesday also would not discuss the indictments brought by her counterpart in Fulton County. She declined to say if she’s read the charging documents.
“My focus continues to be removing dangerous criminals from our streets,” Mitchell responded via email through a spokesperson. “No investigation of the type you mentioned has been submitted to my office.”
The Fulton County document alleges the same criminal enterprise that operated in Georgia on Trump’s behalf also operated in Arizona.
Like Georgia, Arizona was a nexus of coordinated attempts to challenge 2020 election results.
