Court documents filed earlier this week reveal that the grand jury that indicted a slew of Republicans for election fraud in Arizona also wanted to charge former president Donald Trump—but federal prosecutors urged against it.
18 Republicans who were backing the candidate during the 2020 election were indicted in April for falsely presenting themselves as official electors and signing a document that said Trump won the Grand Canyon State in the election. In reality, Biden won by thousands of votes. Although Trump was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator, the grand jury was tempted to charge him as well.
New records submitted by the state’s Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, shed light on the 18 days of testimony from grand jurors and prosecutors. Amid consideration for what might be fitting charges for the former president, a prosecutor reportedly requested that Trump not be indicted.
The reason cited for evading such charges was a policy from the Department of Justice (DOJ), which bars individuals from being prosecuted for the same crime twice. The unnamed prosecutor was also unsure if there would be enough evidence to charge Trump. The former president is also facing federal charges of tampering with the 2020 presidential election.
However, a previous prosecutor and current criminal defense lawyer in Arizona has pointed out that the cited policy is not something that the attorney general’s office must adhere to. Jason Lamm said that the decision not to indict Trump was merely “a choice” instead of “an obligation.”
Additionally, the recent filing said that prosecutors were also not keen on charging GOP lawmakers from the state who signed a document that was encouraging Mike Pence to accept the faulty electoral documents. The records come just after a Republican activist who signed the documents pleaded guilty to filing a false document—a misdemeanor—making her the first person to be convicted in the high-profile case.
According to court records, Loraine Pellegrino saw a decrease to one charge after originally being slapped with nine felonies. She has been sentenced to unsupervised probation.
