HUGE legal news out of Arizona! 11 "Fake Electors" and numerous Trump co-conspirators were just indicted on felony charges related to their shenanigans during the period right after the 2020 election.
The Washington Post reports that a grand jury officially "indicted seven attorneys and aides affiliated with Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign as well as 11 Arizona Republicans on felony charges related to their alleged efforts to subvert Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state." Those indicted include Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Christina Bobb, top campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn and former campaign aide Mike Roman. Also charged are the Republicans who signed the paperwork for the false electors, including GOP state party chair Kelli Ward, state Senator Jake Hoffman and state Senator Anthony Kern, and a GOP national committeeman and CEO of Turning Point Action, Tyler Bowyer. Trump was not charged, but was listed as "unindicted co-conspirator."
Many of those indicted plotted in numerous other states and quite a few of them actually face charges in Fulton County, Georgia for similar charges. In Georgia, Jenna Ellis already pleaded guilty. This is Boris Epshteyn's first set of charges.
A name that is not in the indictment: Kenneth Chesebro. The Post reports that Arizona prosecutors met with him in late 2023 and he provided them "with records — some that had been previously unseen — that revealed more information about those involved in the Arizona effort."
The news of the indictments broke during the 7pm news hour, so Joy Ann Reid carried the story live, as Vaughn Hillyard had to rapidly read the document and discuss it live on air. Here is a bit of the back and forth with Joyce Vance and Joy Ann Reid:
REID: And joining me now is Joyce Vance, former US attorney and MSNBC legal analyst. Joyce, I'll go to you first for your reaction.
VANCE: Well, I think it's not surprising that we've seen this indictment. What's surprising in some regards is some of the expansion here, the inclusion of Boris Epshtyn, the apparent sense that Kenneth Chesebro may be finally cooperating since he is not indicted but is discussed in the indictment. This suggests that prosecutors in Arizona have amassed the evidence that they need to go even a step further on prosecuting one of the many fake slates of electors conspiracies that took place across the country. It is horrible news for Donald Trump in the middle of his criminal trial in Manhattan. He's an unindicted co-conspirator in this case.
REID: And very quickly, to stay with you for a minute, Joyce, I mean, there was a lot of criticism of Fani Willis when she brought a case against 19 people, a RICO case. This has got one more than that. This is 20 people, 11 in the state, and then nine additional people whose names were originally under seal. I mean, this is an even more sprawling case, as you said, with even more people that we hadn't heard before. Christina Bobb had not been in before, Boris Epshtyn.So kind of to me is pretty much a vindication, in my mind at least, of what she did in Georgia.
VANCE: Well, I think it suggests that Fani Willis was the immaculate career prosecutor that we know her to be. Tim will tell you this, too. When you're a prosecutor, there's no arbitrary limit on the number of people that you indict in a case. You indict the people who you have evidence against, core participants when you've got a conspiracy setting like this, and you don't arbitrarily say, well, I've only got room for 12 people, or I've only got room for 13 people. Your job as a prosecutor is to hold people accountable for criminal conduct, and that appears to be what's happening in Arizona tonight.
As the old saying goes: The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.
