PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes plans to announce next week that one of the 18 defendants in her investigation of the so-called "fake electors" scheme will become a cooperating witness for the prosecution.
"We are going to have a very significant announcement to make early next week," Mayes said during Friday's taping of this weekend's "Sunday Square Off."
When asked whether one of the defendants would flip, Mayes responded: "I think that's accurate."
Mayes declined to provide more information.
"We're making progress in the case, and we feel good about the case," she said.
She also stuck to a previous forecast that the first trial in the case would come next year.
"It's good news for the government, bad news for the defendants and a pathway for other defendants in that case as well," said Mark Kokanovich, a white-collar defense attorney at Ballard Spahr in Phoenix and a former federal prosecutor.
"The evidence is overwhelmingly strong... The first people through the door usually get the best deals."
Several of the defendants in Arizona are also defendants in Georgia's election interference case.
One of them is Jenna Ellis, a former Trump legal adviser. Ellis allegedly worked with Rudy Giuliani on a pressure campaign to reverse Arizona's 2020 presidential election results.
In the Georgia case, Ellis agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for a sentence of five years probation.
Ellis told the Fulton County, Ga., court that she had "failed to do my due diligence" in other states.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges," Ellis told the court. "I look back on this full experience with deep remorse.”
Ellis' Arizona attorney could not be reached for comment.
All 18 defendants - including former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani; former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; and former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward - have entered not-guilty pleas.
Each defendant was charged with the same nine felony counts of fraud, forgery and conspiracy.
Two of the defendants - state Sens. Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman - were on Tuesday's primary ballot.
Kern finished fifth in the six-candidate Republican primary in the West Valley's Eighth Congressional District.
Hoffman was unopposed in his state Senate primary for a safe Republican seat in the East Valley.
At least three defendants have filed motions to dismiss the charges.
Arizona is one of five battleground states where criminal charges have been filed in similar fake elector schemes after the 2020 presidential election.
The Arizona indictments allege the state's 11 Republican electors and seven Trump allies engaged in an illegal scheme to falsely put forward the electors as duly chosen by Arizona voters.
The goal was to block Congress' certification of Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
"Sunday Square Off" airs this weekend at the special time of 6:30 p.m. Saturday on 12News.
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