Mayes: Defendant in AZ fake elector case has flipped, will testify for the prosecution

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is planning to announce next week that one of the 18 defendants in the state’s fake elector case will become a witness for the prosecution. 

In April, the fake electors were indicted by a grand jury for signing bogus documents claiming that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, after Trump’s campaign allegedly urged them to do so. 

Trump is identified in the indictment as “unindicted co-conspirator 1.”

In the indictment, all of the fake electors are implicated in an attempt to deceive “the public with false claims of election fraud in order to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency.”

They are accused of attempting to keep “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.”

According to the indictment, the fake electors forged certificates of Electoral College votes for President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael Pence and filed those with the Arizona Secretary of State and the chief judge of the Federal District Court for the District of Arizona. 

The fake electors include two Arizona State Senators who were also delegates at this year’s Republican National Convention. 

Each of the 11 Trump electors was charged with nine felonies related to trying to subvert the election, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery. All of the defendants pleaded not guilty.

The development than one of the defendant’s has cut a deal to testify for the prosecution was first reported by 12 News.

Mayes told 12 News there would be a “significant announcement” next week regarding the case, and said it would be “accurate” to say that the pending announcement would be that a defendant had flipped.

She declined to provide more information when pressed by 12 News. 

Those indicted for being fake electors in the scheme 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

The indictments also included other people who worked for the Trump campaign or alongside it to facilitate the fake electors’ work:

• 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 is facing possible disbarment 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. 

“I can confirm we expect to make that type of announcement next week in the case,” AG spokesman Richie Taylor said in an email to the Arizona Mirror. “I don’t have any additional details to share at this time.”