Judge dismisses Arizona fake electors case but leaves door open for a new prosecution

A Maricopa County judge has dismissed the criminal case against Arizona’s 11 fake electors but left the door open for future indictments — though whether that happens depends on the outcome of November’s election. 

Two years ago, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed charges against the 11 fake electors who signed a document falsely awarding Donald Trump the state’s electoral votes following the 2020 election that Joe Biden won, as well as seven other people close to Trump and his campaign who orchestrated the scheme. 

Among those indicted by a grand jury were state Sen. Jake Hoffman, former state Sen. Anthony Kern, Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer, then-AZGOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward and top Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows. 

Trump later issued dozens of pardons to fake electors in Arizona and other battleground states that he lost in 2020 that shielded them from federal prosecution. A handful of state-level efforts were all that remained to hold them accountable. 

But the Arizona criminal case was foiled last year when Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers dismissed the indictments, siding with the fake electors who said that prosecutors left out critical information when presenting the case to jurors. They argued that jurors should have been given a copy of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which they claimed absolves them of wrongdoing. The 138-year-old law details how Congress should deal with multiple slates of electors from a single state. 

Mayes unsuccessfully petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to reverse that decision, leaving her with little choice but to seek new indictments. 

On Tuesday, Myers issued a final ruling dismissing the case. But he rejected multiple requests from the defendants to dismiss the case with prejudice, which would have barred Mayes from reviving the challenge in the future with new indictments. 

In his ruling, Myers wrote that claims from the fake electors that they’d been forced to sacrifice time, money and their emotional well-being weren’t sufficient to stop the state from seeking legal redress later. 

“Defendants have cited, among other factors, the passage of time, the amount of money spent, the stress caused to the Defendants, fundamental fairness, and the interests of justice,” Myers wrote. “While the Court does not discount the significance of those circumstances, the Court finds that the interests of justice do not require a dismissal with prejudice.”

But whether Mayes will be able to see a new series of indictments through will depend on whether voters award her another four-year term in November. The Democrat is hoping to fend off a challenge from Gilbert Republican Warren Petersen, the head of the Arizona Senate, who is unlikely to pursue the same legal path. 

Petersen is an election denier who helped launch the state legislature’s partisan “audit” of the 2020 election that sought to provide evidence that the election was rigged against Trump. It ultimately found no evidence of election fraud and concluded that Biden defeated Trump.