By An Arizona grand jury that indicted 18 allies of former President Donald Trump on criminal charges related to trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state was interested in indicting Trump as well, but was asked not to do so by the state attorney general’s office, according to a new court filing.
Attorney General Kristin Mayes’ office disclosed the grand jury’s interest in charging Trump in a filing that disputed a claim by many of the defendants that the office was politically biased in prosecuting them in the so-called fake electors case.
Trump is mentioned, though not by name, as Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1 in the indictment filed in April against his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and the other defendants in Maricopa County Superior Court. Trump is the Republican nominee for president.
“Facts — not Defendants’ declarations — matter,” Mayes’ office wrote in the filing Tuesday in that court. The filing was first reported by The New York Times.
“The State Grand Jury was told by the Attorney General’s Office on multiple occasions that it had the discretion to indict no one,” the office wrote.
“Far from being politically biased, the Attorney General’s Office, despite the Grand Jury’s interest in doing so, asked the Grand Jury to consider not indicting Donald Trump; Republican members and members-elect of the Arizona Legislature who had signed onto a document falsely purporting to be ‘A Joint Resolution of the 54th Legislature, State of Arizona to the 116th Congress’ on December 14, 2020; an attorney for the Arizona Republican Party; and others associated with Defendants.”
The filing said that a prosecutor based the request not to indict Trump on a U.S. Justice Department policy against having federal prosecutors and state prosecutors separately charge the same people for the same alleged conduct.
Trump was charged last year in federal court in Washington, D.C., with crimes connected to his efforts to reverse his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden. He also was charged last year in state court in Atlanta with trying to overturn Biden’s victory that year in Georgia.
“I think you should weigh this policy heavily,” the Arizona prosecutor told the grand jurors, according to a transcript quoted in Tuesday’s filing. “And that would be — that is why I have not recommended that in the draft indictment, despite clear indications from you all that there’s an interest in pursuing a charge against him.”
“And I know that may be disappointing to some of you. I understand,” the prosecutor said, according to the transcript.
The prosecutor told the grand jurors that it “is a big deal” to consider indicting someone, “even the president,” according to the transcript.
CNBC has requested comment from a spokesman for Trump on the filing.
On Monday, Mayes’ office announced that it was dropping felony charges in the case against Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who had worked closely with Giuliani on nationwide efforts after the 2020 election to void Biden’s victory.
On Tuesday, Republican activist Lorraine Pellegrino, one of the defendants in the case who had claimed to be valid delegates to the Electoral College, the entity that elects U.S. presidents, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false instrument.
