Arizona AG officially unveils 9 new felony charges against Trump’s former chief of staff

03 May 2024

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes confirmed this week that Mark Meadows — who served as chief of staff in former President Donald Trump's White House — has been officially served on nine felony charges related to her office's ongoing fake electors investigation.

Legal news website Law & Crime reported Friday that the charges against Meadows have now been made public after it was previously reported that he and 17 others were the targets of a massive criminal probe. Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, called the indictment a "blatantly political and politicized accusation," and said the charges "will be contested and defeated." The ex-president has not been indicted, but has been confirmed to be an unindicted co-conspirator according to investigators.

"In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as President on November 3, 2020,” the indictment read, stating that “defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency” in order to reelect Trump “against the will of Arizona’s voters.”

"This scheme would have deprived Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted," the indictment continued.

According to the Washington Post, all defendants are charged under all counts mentioned in the indictment. Defendants are facing felony charges of conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices (the most serious count) and fraudulent schemes and practices. Defendants have also been charged with felony forgery.

In addition to Meadows, other high-ranking Republicans were also hit with criminal charges. Law & Crime reported that Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward and her husband Michael were charged in the indictment, along with Arizona GOP activists Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, Jacob Hoffman, Anthony Kern, James Lamon, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten.

Others looped into the investigation but who have not been formally charged include former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and the now disbarred former Trump attorney John Eastman — the author of the "Eastman Memo" that laid out the strategy for giving Electoral College votes to Trump on January 6, 2021. Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis has also been named as a codefendant, though she has yet to be formally charged.

Arizona investigators are also expected to officially serve Trump campaign attorney Boris Epshteyn with felony charges, along with one-time Trump lawyer Christina Bobb. She has since joined the Republican National Committee's (RNC) "election integrity team," helping the RNC litigate 2024 election results in key battleground states, like Arizona. Prior to her work with Trump and the RNC, Bobb was an anchor at the far-right One America News Network.

The Grand Canyon State is merely the latest state to charge Trump allies and associates with felonies in relation to the fake elector plot. Investigators in Georgia and Michigan, for example, are also pursuing charges against Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman, Ellis and others for their alleged role in the scheme. The plot involved Republican activists submitting fraudulent documents stating themselves as the true presidential electors from their respective states, after which they would use their role as electors to award their states' electoral votes to Trump, even though President Joe Biden won the 2020 election in those states.

Notably, former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro was not named as a defendant in the Arizona indictment, as he entered into a cooperation agreement with the attorney general's office in December. The alleged acts described in the indictment were likely a result of Chesebro's testimony.

Click here to read Law & Crime's full report.

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