Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump participates in a question-and-answer session at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, July 31, 2024. Scott Olson | Getty Images 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 doin.