The interference of then US President Donald Trump with the outcome of the 2020 election he lost led to a new criminal case on Wednesday. A grand jury in Arizona approved indictments against eighteen people who allegedly tried to reverse Joe Biden’s election victory in the western state on behalf of Trump. The ex-president himself is not a suspect in the case and is referred to in the indictment as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
The case in Arizona revolves around Trump’s team’s plan to sabotage Biden’s election through the Electoral College in the aftermath of the elections. In the tiered American electoral system, 538 points electors (electors) formally appoints the president on behalf of the fifty states, after which the House and Senate confirm that choice in a joint session. In a handful of states where Trump narrowly lost, his lawyers drew up an ‘alternative’ list of electors who should still award him the win. They did this with the excuse that there were indications of election fraud.
However, that claim had already been rejected by several judges in the weeks before, and Congress therefore ignored the lists of ‘fake electoral votes’. On the night of January 6 to 7, 2021 – after several hours of delay due to the Capitol storming instigated by Trump – the House and Senate finalized Biden’s win.
More cases elsewhere in the country
The eleven Republicans who expressed their willingness to vote for Trump as Arizona’s electors in mid-December 2020 are now being prosecuted for alleged conspiracy, fraud and forgery. Among the seven other indicted suspects are Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and then-chief of staff Mark Meadows.
These last three Trump loyalists also play an important role in two cases opened elsewhere in the country against the ex-president and his entourage for their attempts to undo his loss. A federal case in the capital Washington was brought last August by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith. A second takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, where chief prosecutor Fani Willis indicted the ex-president and eighteen co-defendants a few weeks after Smith. Three fake electors are also being prosecuted in this southern state.
Justice in Michigan also filed charges last July against sixteen Republicans who wanted to serve as Trump’s electors despite Biden’s win in the midwestern state. One of the suspects is now cooperating with law enforcement, while the other fifteen have declared themselves innocent. Last December, a grand jury in Arizona’s neighboring state of Nevada also approved an indictment against six Republicans who signed their names as ‘fake electors’. Both cases have yet to occur.
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Trump in the dock: this is how his criminal cases stand
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Tags: Interference outcome continues haunt Trump loyalists legally
