Arizona governor swears he never knew about the fake Trump electors despite Republican involvement

The Arizona Republic reported Monday that Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) said that he had nothing to do with the fake electors from Arizona for then-President Donald Trump. According to him, he didn't even know about the fake electors until Monday morning, in 2022.

Documents obtained by American Oversight revealed that many Republican officials in Arizona were directed by Trump's campaign advisers and lawyers over the plot to overthrow the 2020 election with forged documents. At one point, Politico's Nicholas Wu obtained a cease and desist document that the Arizona state government sent to a sovereign citizens group trying to pass off the fake document with an official seal.

The Arizona Republic previously obtained text messages and other documents showing how White House officials and the Trump campaign were pushing Republican legislators to dismiss the results so that they could vote as a body to hand the election to Trump.

But according to Ducey, it's the first he's hearing of it. Dec. 14, 2020, the Arizona Republic reported on the 11 fake electors, even going so far as to quote Mesa resident Lori Osiecki, who was behind the effort. That expanded to national news, including the Fox networks.

At the same time, Ducey missed that Rudy Giuliani was pushing to keep the Arizona legislature in session to stop the 2020 election, Fox said at the time.

Ducey appeared to have missed reports in Dec. 2020, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs sent a cease-and-desist letter to the so-called sovereign citizens' group saying that the state requires people to get permission to "use, display or otherwise employ any facsimile, copy, likeness, imitation or other resemblance" to the state seal.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is now running for U.S. Senate, is said to be investigating the 2020 election in Arizona. He hasn't announced any probe into the electors.

Ducey has not made a statement condemning the fraudulent attempt to overthrow the election.

"I'm going to leave that to the appropriate authorities," he claimed.