Donald Trump named unindicted co-conspirator in Arizona charges against 'fake electors'

Former President Donald Trump is named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Arizona fake elector scheme charges issued Wednesday against 18 Republicans and former aides to Trump.

The defendants are charged with crimes including conspiracy and forgery for falsely claiming they were presidential electors and that Trump won the state in the 2020 election. Trump was identified as “unindicted coconspirator 1" in the indictment.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman are among the top Trump aides charged. Other high-profile defendants include Republican state Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward.

The charges represent the fourth state-level charges against fake electors who tried to change their election results by meeting and signing documents to keep Trump in office. The other states are Michigan, Nevada and Georgia.

Trump, Meadows and Giuliani are each charged with 12 co-defendants in Georgia’s election racketeering case, which is based on the parallel plot in that state. Trump, Meadows and Giuliani have pleaded not guilty, but four other co-defendants have pleaded guilty.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, charged the slate of fake electors engaged in a conspiracy aimed at "preventing 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."

President Joe Biden Biden carried Arizona in November 2020 by a 10,457 vote margin with nearly 3.4 million votes cast. It was Biden’s smallest margin of victory in any state, and only the second time in 70 years that a Democrat won the state.

Trump spent months baselessly alleging widespread voter fraud, claims which state and federal Republican authorities investigated and dismissed. Trump and his aides unleashed a pressure campaign on GOP leaders in Arizona and other states.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump named unindicted co-conspirator in Arizona election case