Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said that her office plans to announce next week that one of the defendants in the state’s fake elector case has decided to “flip.”
Speaking with KPNX for the network’s Sunday Square Off program airing this weekend, Mayes, a Democrat, said her team is “going to have a very significant announcement to make early next week.” When asked by the network it’s regarding one of the defendants agreeing to become a cooperating witness in the case, Mayes said, “I think that’s accurate.”
“We’re making progress in the case, and we feel good about the case,” the attorney general added, who declined to share additional information about the announcement.
Mayes in April charged 18 people in the fake electors case. According to the indictment, the defendants are accused of attempting to overturn Arizona’s 2020 election results by implementing a slate of fake electors who would select former President Donald Trump as the winner of the state’s electoral count. The charges include fraud, forgery and conspiracy, all felonies under state law.
Newsweek reached out to Mayes’ office via email for comment Friday night.
Many of the defendants include some of Trump’s closest allies, who also face charges in Georgia for similar accusations related to that state’s 2020 election results. The list includes former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, ex-Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Trump attorneys John Eastman and Jenna Ellis.
Ellis pleaded guilty in the fall to some of the charges brought against her by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, and agreed to work with prosecutors as a cooperating witness. Two other defendants in the Georgia racketeering case—Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro—also pleaded guilty and agreed to flip on Trump. Willis’ indictment has been delayed pending a decision on Trump’s efforts to have the district attorney removed from the case due to her relationship with former prosecutor Nathan Wade.
State Republicans have ripped Mayes’ investigation as an “abuse of legal authority” and accused her office of attempting to “disrupt, distract, and interfere” in the 2024 election.
“The Arizona Republican Party condemns these actions in the strongest terms,” the party said in an April statement. “They do nothing but undermine the trust in our state’s legal processes and are clearly designed to silence dissent and weaponize the law against political opponents.”
Mayes said in a video message after announcing the indictment that the defendants attempted to “undermine the will of Arizona’s voters.” President Joe Biden defeated Trump by just over 10,000 votes in the state in 2020.
“Arizona’s election was free and fair,” Mayes said in the spring. “The people of Arizona elected President Biden. Unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency. Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for and I was elected to uphold the law of this state.”
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