Who are the 18 indicted co-conspirators in the Arizona fake electors’ scheme?
An Arizona grand jury indicted 18 individuals for their role in an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election in favour of Donald Trump by falsely certifying the state’s 2020 election results.
The state’s Attorney General Kris Mayes has so far released the names of 16 of those charged, explaining that two of the defendants’ names have been redacted but will be released “after all defendants have been served.”
Eleven names were first released on Wednesday, but on Friday, the state’s Attorney General also revealed the names of five more defendants, all of whom were once Trump allies: John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Christina Bobb, Jenna Ellis, and Michael Roman.
Disgraced former New York City Mayor Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani appears to be the only the defendants left in the redacted group.
The indictment accuses the defendants of committing “the lawful transfer of the presidency of the United States, keeping 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.”
The defendants’ scheme relied on their false claims to be “duly elected and qualified” electors, the filing says.
The plot ultimately failed when then-Vice President Mike Pence certified the election for Joe Biden after the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The 11 indicted individuals who were initially named were selected to be the state’s Republican Party Presidential Electors in 2020. Each was charged with the same nine counts of conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
Here is what we know about those indicted:
Dr Kelli Ward
An outspoken Trump supporter, Dr Ward was the chair of the Arizona Republican party from 2019 through 2023. Before that, she served as a state Senator from 2013 through 2015, when she resigned to run for a US Senate seat in 2016; she lost in the GOP primary to incumbent Senator John McCain. She was defeated in another bid for the US Senate in 2018.
The indictment states that she arranged “the fake electors’ vote” on December 14, 2020, when she voted for Trump-Pence as a fake elector and falsely stating that she was “duly elected and qualified.”
After casting her vote, she declared the Arizona Republican electors as the “true electors.”
On December 14, 2020, the Republican Party of Arizona tweeted its plan to “convene to cast votes” for Mr Trump, she replied, “Oh yes we did! We are the electors who represent the legal voters of Arizona #Trump2020 #MAGA”
Months later, she later urged Mr Pence to “accept false electoral votes for Trump-Pence” on January 6, the filing says.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Timesreported that Ms Ward told Mr Pence’s then-Chief of Staff Marc Short in late 2020 that the Arizona Republican party would not have joined a lawsuit claiming that the vice president “could accept and reject electors at will had Trump not been okay with it.”
She was born and raised in West Virginia and later earned a medical degree from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, where she met her now-husband Michael Ward, who is also a defendant in the case.
This isn’t the first time Ms Ward has been embroiled in scandal.
In January, Dr Ward was accused of assaulting a woman who questioned her involvement in an Arizona Republican Party meeting, seeing as Dr Ward was no longer the party chair, the Arizona Mirror reported. She was never charged over the alleged incident.
In her second US Senate bid in 2018, she claimed that an announcement John McCain was ending his cancer treatment was made to paint a “particular narrative that they hope is negative to me.”
She later apologised, saying, “I do understand how many could have misconstrued my comments as insensitive… The intention of my comments were in no way directed at Senator McCain or his family.”
Two days after Senator McCain died in August 2018, she tweeted: “Political correctness is like a cancer!”
Tyler Bowyer
Mr Bowyer is a member of the Republican National Committee and serves as the chief operating officer of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point Action.
He voted for Trump while claiming to be a qualified elector and “made statements indicating that he intended to have Pence accept the false electoral votes” for Mr Trump on January 6, the indictment states.
Two years ago, he told The Arizona Republic that he was an elector for the state’s Republican party, but said he didn’t know “all the details and facts” around the alleged fake electors scheme.
On 14 December 2020, Mr Bowyer tweeted, “Today I was proud to cast my vote as Republican Elector for Arizona for Donald J Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. The results have been transmitted to proper parties for consideration by Congress on January 6th and litigation and investigation into the election continues.”
He has also touted that he was a “primary organizer and speaker” at Mr Trump’s Phoenix rally in July 2015.
Nancy Cottle
Ms Cottle was the chair of the Arizona Republican Presidential Electors. She has also served on the Maricopa County Republican Committee and the Republican Party of Arizona executive committee.
She is accused of voting for the Trump-Pence “as a fake elector” and falsely stated that she was “duly elected and qualified.”
She serves on the Arizona Federation of Republican Women.
A memo from 14 December 2020 shows that Ms Cottle sent the Certificate Of The Votes Of The 2020 Electors From Arizona to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the United States, Arizona’s Secretary of State, and the chief judge of the US District Court District of Arizona.
Ms Cottle was subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.
She also led the pledge of allegiance at a 2022 Trump rally in Florence, Arizona.
Jacob Hoffman
Jake Hoffman is currently a Republican Arizona state Senator. But at the time of the allegations, he was a representative-elect in the Arizona Legislature. He is also the founder and chair of the Arizona Freedom Caucus.
Like the others, Mr Hoffman was charged with voted for Mr Trump as a fake elector on 14 December 2020.
Following his vote as an Arizona Republican elector, the indictment states, Mr Hoffman “urged Pence, in a letter dated January 5, 2020, to delay accepting Arizona’s certified Democrat elector votes on January 6, 2021,” during the Joint Session of Congress in Washington DC.
After the indictment was announced, on Thursday, the State Freedom Caucus Network issued a statement saying the group “stands with” Mr Hoffman and Anthony Kern, another defendant and member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus.
The group wrote, “Their crimes? Supporting President Trump after the 2020 election. Alternate electors have been a part of America’s electoral process for decades.”
The State Freedom Caucus Network said it looks forward “to a swift acquittal of these bogus charges.”
Mr Hoffman told the Associated Press that Attorney General Mayes was weaponising her office by bringing the case. “Let me be unequivocal, I am innocent of any crime, I will vigorously defend myself, and I look forward to the day when I am vindicated of this naked political persecution by the judicial process,” he told the outlet.
Anthony Kern
Mr Kern has served as an Arizona state senator, is a member of the Freedom Caucus, and is now running for a US Congressional seat in his home state. His bio on the Arizona state legislature website details that he “firmly believes in the United States Constitution.”
The state senator voted for Mr Trump as a fake elector on 14 December 2020, the indictment says.
After that, Mr Kern “continued to urge Arizona officials and Pence to accept the Arizona Republican electors’ votes” on January 6.
He was photographed in restricted areas outside the Capitol building during the January 6 riot.
James Lamon
Mr Lamon, the founder of energy company DEPCOM Power, ran for a US Senate seat in Arizona in 2022 but lost in the GOP primary.
He was also accused of falsely claiming to be “duly and elected and qualified” when he voted as a fake elector for Mr Trump in December 2020.
Robert Montgomery
Mr Montgomery served as the chair of the Cochise County Republican Committee in 2020.
The indictment accused him of voting for the Trump-Pence ticket as a fake elector in December of that year.
Samuel Moorhead
Mr Moorhead is a Republican precinct committee member in Gila County.
He also cast his vote for the former president in December 2020 as a fake elector, the indictment states.
Lorraine Pellegrino
Ms Pellegrino served as the Secretary of the Arizona Republican fake presidential electors, the filing states.
She previously served as the former president of the Ahwatukee Republican Women
Ms Pellegrino is also accused of casting her vote for Mr Trump and Mr Pence on 14 December 2020 as a fake elector.
Gregory Safsten
Mr Safsten was the Executive Director of the Arizona Republican Party.
He is accused of helping Ms Ward “organize the fake electors’ vote” and of voting for Trump as a fake elector.
Michael Ward
Mr Ward is the husband of co-defendant Kelli Ward and is also a doctor. His X bio says, “The J6 Committee fascists hate America. #UltraMAGA Married to #SuperUltraMAGA Warrior @kelliwardAz.”
The indictment charges him with serving as a fake elector and voting for Mr Trump.
In January 2019, he was accused of spitting in the eye of one of his wife’s former volunteers, who apparently then backed her 2019 primary rival Martha McSally, according to The Arizona Republic.
12. Rudy Giuliani?
Although some of the names were redacted, some descriptions, which were not redacted, made their identities clear. Mr Giuliani was one of them.
The description believed to be referring to Mr Giuliani says the individual is frequently referred to as “the Mayor” and was an attorney for Unindicted Coconspirator 1 — who is “a former president of the United States who spread false claims of election fraud following the 2020 election.”
“He spread false claims of election fraud in Arizona and nationally shortly after November 3, 2020,” the filing says.
“He pressured the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Arizona legislators to change the outcome of Arizona’s election, and he was responsible for encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and in six other contested states to vote for Trump-Pence on December 14, 2020,” the indictment reads.
A spokesperson for Mr Giuliani told The Independent in a statement: “Mayor Rudy Giuliani—one of the most effective prosecutors in American history who took down the Mafia, cleaned up the streets of New York and locked up corrupt public officials—is proud to stand up for the countless Americans who raised legitimate concerns surrounding the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.”
The bankrupt ex-mayor was also indicted in Georgia in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ sprawling criminal case related to another fake electors scheme among other charges.
Separately, on Wednesday in Michigan, a state investigator testified that he considered Mr Giuliani to be an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the slate of alternate electors scheme in the state.
13. John Eastman
Mr Eastman was described as an attorney who encouraged the GOP electors to vote on 14 December 2020 and spread false claims of widespread election fraud. “He also pressured the legislature in Arizona and six other states to change the outcome of the election,” citing urging the “then-Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers to convene a Special Session to decertify Arizona’s presidential electors, telling him to “just do it and let the court sort it out.”
Additionally, on the same day, the attorney went to the White House to meet with Unindicted Coconspirator 1, Vice President Pence, and others “to convince Pence to reject or at least delay the confirmation of the lawfully chosen electors two days later at the Joint Session of Congress.”
Mr Bowers testified to the House January 6 Committee in 2022 that Mr Eastman contacted him in early January, encouraging him to schedule a vote to “decertify the electors because we had plenary authority to do so.”
The then-Arizona Republican Speaker of the House added, “I took an oath — for me to take that, to do what you do would be counter to my oath.”
A lawyer for Mr Eastman told The Arizona Republic after the indictment had been handed down: “Dr. Eastman does know, of course, but we haven’t had a chance to delve into it.”
14. Boris Epshteyn
A description lists a lawyer and adviser to the Trump Campaigns in 2016 and 2020.
The indictment says he was involved with “the scheme to submit false Republican electors’ votes” for Mr Trump and “to obstruct the certification process” on January 6 during the Joint Session of Congress.
15. Jenna Ellis
Ms Ellis was described as a former attorney for the Trump Campaign who “worked closely with lobbied Arizona’s Republican legislators after the 2020 presidential election to disregard the popular vote in Arizona.”
“She additionally helped organize the false Arizona Republican electors’ votes on December 14, 2020,” the indictment says.
Ms Ellis was also indicted in Georgia, where she pleaded guilty.
16. Christina Bobb
Ms Bobb was a correspondent for OAN. Last month, she was tapped by the Republican National Committee to lead its election integrity program.
An individual was an attorney for the Trump Campaign who made “false claims of widespread election fraud in Arizona and in six other states,” the filing says.
She “encouraged the Arizona Legislature to change the outcome of the election. She also encouraged Pence to accept the false Arizona Republican electors’ votes” on January 6, the indictment says.
Steven Cheung, Mr Trump’s spokesperson, told Newsweek: “Another example of Democrats‘ weaponization of the legal system. Christina Bobb is a former Marine Corps officer, who served our nation and the President with distinction. The Democrat platform for 2024: if you can’t beat them, try to throw them in jail.”
Ms Bobb was sued in the defamation cases brought by Dominion and Smartmatic voting system companies.
17. Mike Roman
This defendant is referred to as “the Director of Election Day Operations for the Trump Campaign” — Mr Roman’s role — that worked with others to “organize the false Republican electors’ votes in Arizona and in six other states.”
The indictment also accuses him of refusing “to add contingency language to the Republican electors’ vote certificates.”
18. Mark Meadows?
The description thought to belong to Mr Meadows describes the individual as Chief of Staff in 2020.
“He worked with members of the Trump Campaign to coordinate and implement the false Republican electors’ votes in Arizona and six other states.”
The individual “was involved in the many efforts to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in power despite his defeat at the polls,” the indictment states.
Mr Meadows was also indicted in Ms Willis’ election interference case in Georgia, although on charges unrelated to the fake electors scheme there.
