An Arizona grand jury indicted this Wednesday (24) 18 people for their alleged participation in a scheme in which they allegedly falsely certified the victory of Republican Donald Trump in this American state in the 2020 presidential elections in the United States, in an attempt to reverse his defeat. of the then president at the polls – the winner in Arizona was Democrat Joe Biden.
According to information from NBC News, the complaint points out that in December 2020, a month after the election, 11 Trump supporters met at the state headquarters of the Republican Party, in Phoenix, to sign a certificate stating that the state’s 11 delegates were eligible to vote in the Electoral College, even though Biden had won Arizona.
In the American electoral system, the party with the most votes in the presidential election in a state takes all of its local delegates to vote in the Electoral College, which is responsible for electing the president. The number of electoral delegates per state is defined by the size of the population. Arizona takes 11 delegates to the Electoral College.
After the meeting in December 2020, the state Republican Party headquarters recorded the signature of the certificate through a social media post and sent it to the United States Congress and the National Archives.
According to NBC News, Kelli Ward, president of the Arizona Republican Party at the time, was charged; state legislators Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman; Michael Ward, husband of Kelli Ward; Tyler Bowyer, Arizona Republican National Committeeman; Greg Safsten, former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party; Jim Lamon, former candidate for the federal Senate; Robert Montgomery, former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Party; and Republican Party activists Samuel Moorhead, Nancy Cottle and Loraine Pellegrino.
According to the American press, Trump is apparently mentioned in the complaint as “unindicted co-conspirator 1”. In addition to the 11 Republicans mentioned, seven other people were indicted, but their names will only be revealed after they have been notified by the courts.
According to Reuters, Ted Goodman, spokesman for Trump’s lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, is among those indicted whose names have been withheld.
Goodman stated that American justice continues to be used as a political “weapon” and that Giuliani “is proud to defend the countless Americans who have expressed legitimate concerns about the 2020 presidential elections.”