(The Center Square)— The battleground state of Arizona played a key role in the arraignment of former President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. on Thursday.
A federal grand jury charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights– all pertaining to the results of the 2020 election. Trump pled not guilty to all of the charges, calling the latest federal push a “witch hunt” in an earlier social media post.
The indictment cites conversations between former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and co-conspirator 1, which Rudy Giuliani’s attorneys have confirmed as him, in which Giuliani attempts to persuade Bowers to find a way for the state Legislature to somehow flip the results in Arizona to go in Trump’s favor.
“On December 1, Co-Conspirator 1 met with the Arizona House Speaker. When the Arizona House Speaker again asked Co-Conspirator 1 for evidence of the outcome-determinative election fraud he and the Defendant had been claiming, Co-Conspirator 1 responded with words to the effect of, ‘We don’t have the evidence, but we have lots of theories,'” the indictment states.
Prior to the Dec. 1 conversation, the indictment says that Trump and Giuliani called Bowers on Nov. 22, in which they alleged election fraud but could not provide evidence. Trump and Giuliani alleged that “non-citizens, non-residents, and dead people” voted illegally in Arizona. The indictment later states that Trump specifically falsely claimed that 36,000 non-citizens voted in the state’s close election.
Besides Giuliani, co-conspirator 2, who is believed to be John Eastman, called Bowers on Jan. 4, 2021, asking him to have the Legislature “decertify the state’s legitimate electors.” However, this was well after former Gov. Doug Ducey had already certified the election results on Nov. 30, 2020, and the electors decided to move forward with going for President Joe Biden.
“When the Arizona House Speaker explained that state investigations had uncovered no evidence of substantial fraud in the state, Co-Conspirator 2 conceded that he “[didn’t] know enough about facts on the ground” in Arizona, but nonetheless told the Arizona House Speaker to decertify and ‘let the courts sort it out,'” the indictment says. “The Arizona House Speaker refused, stating that he would not ‘play with the oath’ he had taken to uphold the United States Constitution and Arizona law.”
Trump lost Arizona by roughly 10,000 votes in the 2020 election, and he ultimately lost the electoral college vote 306-232 against President Joe Biden. The results became a hot topic in the 2022 midterm election in Arizona, as some Republican nominees, such as gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem, stated that they agreed with Trump that the election’s administration had serious issues.
This is the third recent indictment against the former president, and the second coming from Special Counsel Jack Smith. Smith also brought charges against Trump over the alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida. In addition, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the indictment of Trump with “34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree,” according to a news release from Bragg’s office in April.
However, the most damning indictment for Trump will likely be a case in Fulton County, Georgia, in which the Grand Jury there is reportedly wrapping up and deciding possible charges against him for possible attempts to overturn the election results there as well, according to PBS Newshour.
