Trump allies who sought to overturn election face new indictment in Arizona

Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes plans to seek a new indictment against allies of President Donald Trump who aided his bid to overturn the 2020 election, her office announced Thursday after the state Supreme Court rejected her appeal to revive the original case.

The high court's brief, unexplained ruling closed the door on a two-year-old indictment that had threatened some of Trump's closest allies — among them former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, attorney John Eastman, and 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely claimed to be the state's legitimate presidential electors.

The original indictment accused the defendants of scheming to keep Trump "in office against the will of Arizona voters" and "depriving Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted." Trump himself was named as "Unindicted Coconspirator 1."

The grand jury found that defendants "deceived the citizens of Arizona by falsely claiming" their votes were contingent on a pending legal challenge — when in reality, the indictment alleged, they intended to encourage former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certified Biden-Harris electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

The case began unraveling last year when a Maricopa County judge tossed the indictment, finding that prosecutors had failed to present the original grand jury with the full text of the Electoral Count Act — a 19th-century law governing presidential certification that defendants cited in their own defense. Mayes appealed, but the state Supreme Court denied her petition Thursday without explanation.

Her office said it will now re-present the case in its entirety to a fresh grand jury rather than abandon the prosecution.

"I will not allow American democracy to be undermined," Mayes said when she first announced the charges in April 2024.

Similar prosecutions have faltered elsewhere: a Georgia indictment collapsed after Democratic Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified, special counsel Jack Smith's federal case was dropped after Trump won reelection, and a Michigan case was dismissed after a judge ruled the electors were mere pawns.

Trump issued federal pardons to all 18 Arizona defendants in November 2025 — but those pardons carry no weight against state charges. Cases in Nevada and Wisconsin remain pending.