Arizona's fake electors scandal intensifies in unexpected ways

[LetMyPeopleVote]

For the first time, an indicted fake elector has agreed to plead guilty and accept criminal responsibility for signing the false documents.

Link to tweet

The fake electors case in Arizona is intensifying in fascinating ways:
- Jenna Ellis flips
- A fake elector is pleading guilty for the first time anywhere
- Grand jury members wanted to indict Trump, too

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/arizonas-fake-electors-scandal-intensifies-unexpected-ways-rcna165536

But as we discussed soon after, the question then became whether others might soon follow Ellis’ lead. Evidently, we didn’t have to wait too long for an answer. Politico reported:

An Arizona Republican who falsely claimed to be a legitimate presidential elector for former President Donald Trump — part of a sweeping effort by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election — has pleaded guilty for her role in the scheme. Lorraine Pellegrino, one of 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely posed as Trump’s electors that year, accepted a guilty plea to a single charge for filing a “false instrument” — the fraudulent Electoral College certificate.

While the fake electors scandal has generated several dozen indictments across multiple states — a total unseen in a political scandal since the days of Watergate or Iran-Contra — the Politico report noted that Pellegrino “is the first participant in the elector scheme to accept criminal responsibility for signing the false documents.”

And as dramatic a development as this is, it turns out there’s a related revelation from the same investigation that’s also raised some eyebrows. The Washington Post reported:

An Arizona grand jury that indicted 18 Donald Trump allies this spring for their role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election had expressed interest in possible charges against the former president, according to a legal motion filed this week by state prosecutors. ... The interest prompted the Arizona case’s lead prosecutor to give a PowerPoint presentation and request that jurors not indict Trump, according to the motion.

Oh. So if this report, which hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, is correct, the former president would be facing five criminal indictments — instead of four — if members of an Arizona grand jury had their way......

In fact, local prosecutors weren’t inclined to indict Ellis and Republican lawyer Christina Bobb, but “the grand jury indicted them anyway.”

In the indictment that reached the public in April, Trump was described as “Unindicted Coconspirator 1.” If the Post’s reporting is accurate, at least some of the grand jury was inclined to go even further.