Arizona investigation into Trump’s fake electors continues. Where’s it stand after Georgia?

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.

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.

Arizona saw a campaign by Trump’s legal team to pressure state lawmakers not to certify results; two slates of fake electors certifying that Trump carried the state; and the “audit,” which sowed doubts in the voting process.

The fake electors scheme was the brainchild of John Eastman, a lawyer on Trump’s legal team who proposed the competing slates could create confusion and give Vice President Mike Pence the justification needed to toss out votes from all seven states.

Trump could then be declared the winner, or short of that, the certification of election results could be delayed long enough to give states time to pursue allegations of fraud. Pence, however, refused to go along. Eastman was named in the Georgia indictment.

‘The perfect call’: 7 moments in Trump’s Georgia call now deemed ‘overt act of conspiracy’

A slate of “fake electors” casts votes for Donald Trump in 2020.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in July announced felony charges against the 16 Michigan Republicans accused of participating in a scheme to try to award the state’s Electoral College votes to Trump with a phony certificate in the 2020 election despite his 154,188-vote loss in the state.

Those criminally charged include a former leader of the Michigan GOP, a former Michigan Republican National Committee member and other ardent Trump advocates.

The “audit” in Arizona was the only privately run recount of ballots in the U.S. Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley in June called for state and county authorities to investigate Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, the “audit” coordinator, for potential criminal charges.

Romley, a Republican, said it was not a partisan issue. He said Logan defied court orders to turn over thousands of communications related to the ballot review. Logan is not only in contempt of court, he also appears to have violated a state law that makes withholding public records a Class 6 felony, Romley said.

Trouble for Trump in Georgia: A tape recording, a TV trial and all those co-defendants

Arizona Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins contributed to this article.

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @robertanglen.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Donald Trump-related charges: Will Arizona be the next?