Mayes will go back to the grand jury after Arizona Supreme Court doesn’t revive fake electors case

The Arizona Supreme Court has refused to revive the case against the state’s 11 fake electors who tried to help President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 loss, leaving its outcome at the mercy of the midterm elections. 

Last year, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes asked the state’s high court to reverse a trial court’s ruling that froze the case. Two years ago, an Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people who signed a document claiming to grant Arizona’s electoral votes to Trump on state fraud charges, including top Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows. 

Also indicted were state Sen. Jake Hoffman, former state Sen. Anthony Kern, Tyler Bowyer, the COO of Turning Point Action and Kelli Ward, who at the time of the effort to undermine Biden’s win was the chair of the Arizona Republican Party. 

Attorneys for the fake electors told a trial court that the indictments were invalid because prosecutors didn’t give jurors a copy of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which they said absolved them of any wrongdoing. The 138-year-old law sets up how to count electoral votes and includes a legal framework for Congress to resolve disputes that arise when a state sends multiple slates of electors. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers agreed with the defendants, sending the indictment back to the grand jury and effectively killing the case. 

As a result, Mayes will return to the grand jury to try and restart the prosecution, a spokesman said. But whether any indictment is ultimately prosecuted hinges on whether Mayes, a Democrat, wins reelection in November. The Republicans who hope to defeat her are unlikely to take up the case.

The Arizona bid to hold fake electors accountable is one of a handful of state-level efforts left. At the federal level, Trump issued dozens of pardons to fake electors across the country, including in Arizona.