Arizona’s Democrat Attorney General received a major blow in an attempt to prosecute President Donald Trump’s allies for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam J. Myers ruled Monday that Democrat Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes failed to properly show a grand jury the text of the law she accused President Donald Trump’s associates of violating. The ruling sends the case back to a grand jury, forcing Mayes to again present evidence showing wrongdoing.
Judge Myers wrote that Hayes violated the substantial rights of Bowyer and the other defendants in the case — Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Boris Ephsteyn and 14 others — by not showing them the text of the Electoral College Act of 1887.
“Due process compels the prosecutor to make a fair and impartial presentation to the grand jury,” Myers said according to the Arizona Capitol Times. “Because the state failed to provide the Electoral Count Act to the grand jury, the court finds that the defendants were denied a substantial procedural right as guaranteed by Arizona law.”
The ruling came in response to a motion to send the case back to the grand jury, filed on behalf of Tyler Bowyer, the COO of Turning Point Action and one of the individuals charged. Bowyer’s attorney celebrated the ruling after it was delivered.
“We are extremely pleased with the court’s ruling, and we think the judge got it exactly right,” Stephen Binhak told the Post.
Mayes’ office, which spent a year investigating and several weeks initially presenting evidence to the grand jury, promised to appeal the ruling.
“We vehemently disagree with the court, and we will file a special action to appeal the ruling,” Mayes spokesperson Richie Taylor told the outlet.
Mayes’ office did not respond to a request from the Daily Caller News Foundation for comment.
The Democrat attorney general charged 18 Trump associates last year with trying to award Arizona’s electoral votes to the then-president by using “fake” electors during the 2020 election. Jenna Ellis, an attorney who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign, agreed to cooperate with Mayes’ investigation in exchange for the charges being dropped last year.
Mayes had promised to pursue election charges when she campaigned for attorney general in 2022.
“I think that the people of Arizona can anticipate that we will investigate that situation,” Mayes told a local radio station at the time. “It’s not okay for anyone to essentially steal the state seal and use it for their own purposes.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also charged Trump and several of his associates in Georgia, including Giuliani and Meadows, over allegations of election interference in the 2020 presidential election. The case was put on hold after she was disqualified for having an improper romantic relationship with one of the investigators she hired.
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