Highlights
- The Arizona Supreme Court declined to reverse a trial court ruling that froze indictments against 11 fake electors from the 2020 election.
- Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers sent the case back to the grand jury after finding prosecutors failed to provide jurors the 1887 Electoral Count Act.
- Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, will seek a new indictment, but any prosecution depends on her winning reelection in November.
- At the federal level, Trump already pardoned Arizona's fake electors, leaving state-level action as the only remaining avenue.
The Arizona Supreme Court has refused to revive fraud charges against the state's 11 fake electors, leaving the fate of the prosecution to the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections and a second trip to the grand jury.
Two years ago, an Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people who signed a document claiming to grant Arizona's electoral votes to Donald Trump on state fraud charges. Named defendants included top Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, along with state Sen. Jake Hoffman, former state Sen. Anthony Kern, Tyler Bowyer, the COO of Turning Point Action, and Kelli Ward, who at the time was chair of the Arizona Republican Party.
The case stalled when attorneys for the fake electors argued before Maricopa County Superior Court that the indictments were invalid because prosecutors had not given jurors a copy of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, a 138-year-old law that sets up how to count electoral votes and provides a legal framework for Congress to resolve disputes when a state sends multiple slates of electors. Judge Sam Myers agreed, sending the indictment back to the grand jury and effectively killing the case.
Attorney General Kris Mayes asked the Arizona Supreme Court last year to reverse Myers' ruling. The court declined, according to the Arizona Mirror, a result also confirmed by Politico and KJZZ. A spokesman for Mayes said her office will return to the grand jury to try and restart the prosecution rather than end it.
The political math is stark. Whether any indictment is ultimately prosecuted hinges on whether Mayes, a Democrat, wins reelection in November. The Republicans who hope to defeat her are unlikely to take up the case.
Arizona's effort is one of a handful of state-level accountability actions still active. At the federal level, Trump issued pardons to fake electors across the country, including those in Arizona, closing off that avenue entirely.
The next meaningful checkpoint is the November election.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- azmirror.com retrieved 04/06/2026 18:06
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 04/06/2026 18:06. Every claim traces to a source.
