Arizona indicts 18 individuals for alleged election interference scheme

Arizona’s attorney general on Wednesday released the indictment, which listed 11 individuals and had seven more names redacted. The defendants face charges including fraud, forgery, and conspiracy related to an alleged scheme to prevent the transfer of the presidency from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden, using fake electors.

Who are the 18 individuals? The attorney general’s office said it would unredact the seven names once the defendants in question had been notified of the indictment. The initial indictment listed Kelli Ward, Nancy Cottle, Tyler Bowyer, Anthony Kern, Jacob Hoffman, James Lamon, Gregory Safsten, Robert Montgomery, Lorraine Pellegrino, Samuel Moorhead, and Michael Ward. Trump faces no charges in the indictment. The document lists him as an unindicted co-conspirator and says his claims about the veracity of the 2020 election are false.

Is Arizona the only state investigating allegations of a fake electors scheme? Last July, Michigan’s attorney general announced felony charges against 16 Michigan residents accused of signing forged certificates indicating that they were electors. In a hearing Wednesday, a state investigator testified that Trump was also an unindicted co-conspirator in that case, according to an Associated Press report.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew about how the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Trump’s presidential immunity against election interference charges.