The Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Attorney General Kris Mayes’ bid to keep the state’s fake electors case from going back to a grand jury, forcing prosecutors to start over in a high-stakes criminal case that has already been stalled for more than a year.
Mayes’ office said it will again present the case in its entirety to a grand jury, prolonging a fight over an indictment that was first sought in April 2024 and charged 18 Republicans with forgery, fraud and conspiracy. The case accuses them of trying to undo Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona by 10,457 votes.
The ruling matters because it sets the next step in one of the last criminal cases tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and it does so at a moment when the legal map around the fake elector scheme has narrowed. Similar cases in Michigan and Georgia were dismissed by the courts, and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that accused Trump of conspiring to overturn the election. In Arizona, the case has become one of the most closely watched holdouts.
Mark L. Williams, who defended one of the defendants after the ruling, said, “In my mind, the whole thing is meritless,” and added, “Mr. Giuliani has done nothing wrong.” His comments came after the court declined to spare the case from another grand jury review, even as the defense and the attorney general’s office remain locked in the same basic fight they have had for months.
That fight centers on what the first grand jury was told. Defense lawyers argued it was never shown the relevant parts of the law governing how presidential contests are certified, while Mayes’ office has continued pressing the case forward. The Arizona case has already been slowed by a dozen dismissal requests, and the first judge recused himself in late 2024 after an email surfaced, followed by another judge ordering the matter sent back to a grand jury.
The indictment names a broad mix of defendants: five lawyers who worked for Trump, two former Trump aides and 11 Republicans who submitted a document falsely claiming Trump won Arizona. Three defendants have already resolved their cases, including one who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. The rest now face another round of grand jury proceedings before any new prosecution can move ahead.
The open question is not whether the case will be re-presented. Mayes’ office has said it will be. What remains unclear is how quickly that happens and whether the renewed presentation changes anything about the charges that have kept the Arizona prosecution of fake electors tied up for over a year.
