PHOENIX — Prosecutors in Georgia and Michigan have filed criminal charges over the alleged schemes to keep President Donald Trump in office after his 2020 election defeat.
Is Arizona next?
"We are taking this investigation very seriously, very solemnly," Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said Wednesday, in her first public comments about her office's investigation of the attempts in Arizona to overturn Joe Biden's 11,000-vote victory over Trump.
"We will not move forward unless we believe we will be successful."
Mayes confirmed a Washington Post report last month that her office was investigating the 11 phony Trump electors in Arizona.
The group, which included then-Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, two Republican lawmakers and defeated U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon, signed documents that falsely claimed they were Arizona's rightful electors.
Ward claimed in a tweet on Dec. 14, 2020, that the 11 signers were "the electors who represent the legal voters of Arizona!"
The documents were conveyed to the Capitol in an attempt to thwart the Electoral College count in Congress on Jan. 6 that declared Biden the winner of the presidential election.
Similar efforts were orchestrated in Georgia, Michigan and four other states.
In both Georgia and Michigan, criminal charges have been filed against fake electors.
"We are doing a thorough and professional investigation," Mayes said.
"And we're going to do it on our timetable, as justice demands."
Speaking to reporters at an unrelated event held at her office, Mayes asked for patience regarding the phony electors investigation.
"We're not going to go forward with anything that doesn't meet our charging standards," she said.
The first-term attorney general has been in office just eight months. She noted the Georgia investigation took 2 1/2 years. The Michigan probe lasted about the same amount of time before charges were brought.
Mayes' predecessor, two-term Republican Mark Brnovich, declined to take any action against fellow Republicans who attempted to influence or upend the 2020 election results.
After she took office in January, Mayes released documents that showed Brnovich concealed his own investigators' findings that there was no evidence to support claims of election fraud in Maricopa County during the 2020 election.
Mayes' investigators might get some help from the Fulton County indictment. It sheds new light on how the scheme in Arizona allegedly came together, as part of an "illegal conspiracy" to reverse Trump's election defeat.
The lawyer who wrangled the electors reached out to the then executive director of the Arizona Republican Party. Documents were sent for Trump electors in Arizona to cast a bogus electoral vote, two weeks after Biden's victory in Arizona was certified by the Republican governor, Doug Ducey.
Mayes declined to say whether her office has contacted Georgia authorities.
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