By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — The chances of Attorney General Kris Mayes getting information on the federal January 6th case to pursue her own charges against “fake electors” evaporated at 10 a.m. Arizona time on Monday.

That’s when President Donald Trump took the oath of office in Washington — and U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland, whom she had asked for the files a week earlier, was out of a job. And the new president is replacing her with Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and a long-time Trump supporter.

Strictly speaking, Mayes told Capitol Media Services on Monday that her request to Garland can be renewed with the new administration. But she’s not holding her breath.

“I think that it’s more likely that our request turned into a pumpkin this morning,” Mayes said.

Still, she said, the case against the remaining 17 defendants here will continue, even without the materials gathered by former special prosecutor Jack Smith in his own now-abandoned investigation about efforts by Trump and others to block the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election.

Smith last week released his findings, concluding, among other things, that if Trump had not won the 2024 election there was plenty of evidence to convict him of trying to obstruct the 2020 election.

That report included not just events around the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but also actions by Trump and what Smith called his “co-conspirators” to get electors pledged to him in various states where he lost the vote — including in Arizona — to submit false certificates to Congress saying he had in fact won and was entitled to their votes. That is precisely the issue on which Mayes obtained a grand jury indictment against the 11 fake electors here and seven Trump allies.

What brought the probe to a halt, Smith wrote, was the result of the 2024 election and a Department of Justice policy categorically prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president. Smith has since resigned.

None of that affects the Arizona case. Mayes told Garland she wants everything Smith gathered — above and beyond what’s in the publicly released 146-page report.

“My office has one of the only remaining cases that includes charges against national actors,” she wrote in her letter to Garland. “Undoubtedly, disclosing special counsel’s file to my office will help ensure that those who should be held accountable are.”

On Monday, Mayes called it “deeply disappointing” that Garland left office before giving her the information.

“We thought it had important information that was relevant to our case,” she said.

That case has so far resulted in a state grand jury indictment last year, including the fake electors who were claiming Trump won the 2020 race in Arizona and was entitled to the state’s 11 electoral votes.

Also charged were seven others who were his lawyers and supporters. That includes attorney Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff.

Trump himself was listed as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”

Mayes acknowledged Monday that, in general, the internal documents of an investigation — including in her own office — are not subject to public disclosure. Her request, she said, is different.

“It’s disclosable because we’re a law enforcement agency,” Mayes said.

“And the Department of Justice is also a law enforcement agency,” she continued. “So we absolutely believe and continue to believe it’s disclosable for utilization in the case.”

Anyway, Mayes said, it’s not like she believes everything in the file points to the guilt of all the defendants. She pointed out Meadows himself previously made a request for some documents from Smith.

That was not done because of the federal case, as Meadows had been granted immunity.

But Meadows, along with all the remaining defendants, still faces charges of fraud, forgery and conspiracy here. And Anne Chapman, his attorney, said in a court filing that what he wants will “reveal that Mr. Meadows was not conspiring to unlawfully change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and that his intent was to perform his official acts as the chief of state and head of the Executive Office of the President.”

Mayes said if what’s in Smith’s files proves that, she wants to know.

“As a minister of justice, it’s my responsibility to make sure we have all available information in the case as we prosecute it, including potentially exculpatory information that existed,” Mayes said.

The Arizona case, set for trial next year, charges that 11 Republicans who had run to be Trump’s electors in 2020 came together to sign a document declaring Trump had won despite the fact Joe Biden had outpolled him by 10,457 votes. More to the point, they submitted that document to Congress.

But the state indictment claims the idea actually originated with Trump and his allies.

Smith’s report, for example, details how Giuliani called then-House Speaker Rusty Bowers asking him to call the Legislature into special session to replace the state’s legitimate electors with those pledged to Trump, tell him “we’re all kind of Republicans and need to be working together.”

Bowers, according to the report, asked for evidence to support Giuliani’s claim there had been fraud. Smith said not only did Giuliani fail to provide that but admitted at an in-person meeting a week late that “we don’t have the evidence, but we have lots of theories.”

Lorraine Pellegrino, the founder and former president of Ahwatukee Republican Women and one of the 11 fake electors, already has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false instrument and was placed on unsupervised probation with community service.

Jenna Ellis, one of Trump’s attorneys, has agreed to cooperate in prosecuting the remaining defendants in exchange for eventually having all the charges against her dismissed. Ellis worked with Giuliani in pushing the claims of fraud and was part of the bid to pressure Bowers to call a special session.