Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has announced charges against 11 alleged fake electors, the office announced in a press release on Wednesday, for their alleged role in a scheme after the 2020 presidential election.
The charges include fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.
Several of the names have been redacted, but Mayes said those names will be unredacted when “all defendants have been served.”
Arizona becomes the fourth state to file criminal charges against the so-called “fake electors” who allegedly announced they were ready to pledge electoral votes to Donald Trump in their respective states during the 2020 election, despite Joe Biden winning those states.
Eleven Republicans met in Arizona in December 2020, including then-Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, two Republican lawmakers, and a top official with the Republican National Committee, and signed documents that falsely claimed they were Arizona’s rightful electors.
“Today, Arizona’s 11 Republican presidential electors met to cast their votes for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence,” the Arizona GOP tweeted in December 2020. “With ongoing legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election still being heard in the courts across the country holding hearings on election fraud and voting irregularities, it is imperative that the proper elections are counted by Congress.”
Ballots from the 2020 general election wait to be counted at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 1, 2021 in Phoenix.
Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images, FILE
All 11 alleged fake electors were also part of a legal challenge in the state that sought to challenge the election results based on allegations of voter fraud. The case was thrown out by a judge who called their claims of election fraud “sorely wanting of relevant or reliable evidence.”
Rusty Bowers, then the Arizona House speaker, told the House Jan. 6 committee that following the election he received calls from Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming that there was election fraud in the state.
In this Oct. 18, 2020 file photo, a person is seen depositing their mail-in ballots for the U.S. presidential election at a ballot collection box in Phoenix.
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
“I was insistent that I had to have proof, real proof, judicial level,” Bowers testified. “That’s the kind of proof I’m talking about. And the president said, ‘Rudy, give the man what he wants.'”
Asked by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl if Giuliani ever provided that evidence, Bowers said, “He never gave us anything. No names, no data, nothing.”
Bowers also said that Giuliani and attorney Jenna Ellis flew to Phoenix and met with him and other Arizona lawmakers, and asked them to convene the legislature to investigate their unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
In December, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford announced felony charges against six alleged “fake electors” in that state. In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel similarly charged 16 “alternate electors” in July for conspiracy to commit forgery, among other charges. And in Georgia, three such “fake electors” were among the 18 co-defendants charged, along with Trump, in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state.
All defendants charged in all three probes have pleaded not guilty, with Georgia defendants Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Scott Hall subsequently taking plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify in that case. In Michigan, the attorney general dropped all charges against defendant Jim Renner in exchange for his cooperation.
ABC News previously reported that Trump’s Georgia co-defendant Michael Roman was subpoenaed as part of the Arizona probe and that Chesebro sat for a voluntary interview with Arizona investigators in recent weeks.