Arizona’s chief law enforcement officer has tasked a team of attorneys with looking into alleged efforts by GOP figures to reverse the results of the 2020 election in the state after Donald Trump became the first Republican in decades to lose Arizona’s electoral votes.
Citing two sources familiar with the probe, The Washington Post reported that Attorney General Kris Mayes assigned a team of prosecutors and investigators to the case two months ago, with the prosecutors already having spoken to a number of pro-Trump figures as part of the investigation.
The Post also reported that investigators have already made requests for records and other information from Arizona election officials who oversaw the balloting in November 2020, as well as evidence that has already been collected by the Department of Justice and the Fulton County, Georgia district attorney’s office.
It’s not yet known whether Ms Mayes’ effort will examine the pressure campaign exerted against officials by Mr Trump and his allies as they sought to keep him in the White House against the will of voters who chose to show him the door after a single term in office.
Her chief deputy, Dan Barr, told the Post that the probe is in a “fact-gathering” phase and did not say whether her office has issued subpoenas. He also declined to state what laws the attorney general’s office believes may have been violated by Mr Trump’s allies.
“This is something we’re not going to go into thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll get a conviction,’ or ‘Maybe we have a pretty good chance,’” he said. “This has to be ironclad shut.”
Kris Mayes— (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
The Grand Canyon State probe, which fulfils a campaign promise by Ms Mayes to investigate the Republican figures who signed fake electoral college certificates which were submitted to the National Archives, is just one of multiple investigations into post-election efforts by the twice-impeached, twice-indicted ex-president and his allies that is being conducted under the auspices of federal and state law enforcement entities.
A Department of Justice special counsel, Jack Smith, is overseeing a Washington, DC grand jury that has spoken to multiple witnesses as part of a probe into Mr Trump’s actions after the November 2020 election, including a former Arizona House speaker, Rusty Bowers.
Fani Willis, the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney, is currently presenting evidence to a grand jury that will decide whether to indict Mr Trump or any of his allies for their efforts to reverse his loss to Mr Biden in the Peach State. She has said she will announce a decision on whether to charge the ex-president or anyone in his orbit this summer.
