An Arizona judge on Monday ordered state prosecutors to return their 2020 election subversion case against Republican allies of President Trump to a grand jury, a significant setback for the high-profile case.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam J. Myers agreed with the Republicans who had argued that the Electoral Count Act, a law explaining how to tally presidential electoral votes that is at the heart of their defense, should have been provided to grand jurors.
“A prosecutor has a duty to instruct the grand jury on all the law applicable to the facts of
the case,” Myers wrote in a terse order.
Richie Taylor, a spokesperson for Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D), said in a statement that the state “vehemently” disagrees with the court’s order and plans to appeal.
Though remanding the case to a grand jury is not the same as an altogether dismissal, the decision marks a blow to the state’s efforts to prosecute Trump’s allies for their efforts to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election.
Mayes’s office charged ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn and more than a dozen other defendants. Several of those defendants are the so-called fake electors, who signed a document falsely claiming Trump won the state’s 2020 presidential race.
After the 2024 election, Mayes said she had “no intention” of dropping the case and would not be “intimidated” by Trump’s return to the White House.
The ruling means Mayes must present the case to a new grand jury along with the Electoral Count Act’s text, unless her appeal is successful.
The bid to send the case back to a grand jury was mounted by Stephen Binhak, a lawyer for Turning Point Action executive Tyler Bowyer. He said in a statement that they are “extremely pleased” with the court’s ruling.
“We think the judge got it exactly right,” Binhak said.
Prosecutors in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada have also filed criminal charges related to the alternate electors scheme.
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