“I have been an advocate for holding folks involved in trying to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election accountable,” Hobbs said.
Less than a week after Donald Trump was indicted in Georgia over alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Arizona officials have announced that they are currently investigating an alternate elector plan that was carried out in the Grand Canyon state.
Governor Katie Hobbs said that she supported Attorney General Kris Mayes' move to hold Trump accountable, but her team walked that back, claiming she meant anyone who interfered with the democratic process. The former president has so far been indicted twice in connection with the 2020 election, and four times in total.
"I have been an advocate for holding folks involved in trying to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election accountable, and this is part of that," Hobbs told Fox10 at an event in Arizona.
"Accountability is critical. I don't think we're gonna change direction until there's accountability at the top level, and this is an important step forward that should move forward and play out in the legal process."
The governor's communications director later told KTAR News that she had "misheard the question," and was not referring explicitly to Trump, but to "anyone who breaks the law."
Former Republican Arizona governor Jan Brewer, who was also in attendance, said she believed the state's attorney general "is gonna move forward on some kind of disciplinary action."
Mayes said in a statement that her office was in the process of "doing a thorough and professional investigation" into the alternate electors, who allegedly signed paperwork that claimed Trump had won Arizona.
"We will do it on our timetable, as justice demands," she added.
Arizona was mentioned numerous times in the indictment filed against Trump and eighteen of his associates in Georgia.
According to the indictment, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis met with Arizona legislators in Phoenix on November 30, 2020 and "importuned" them to "unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Arizona." Trump joined the meeting via telephone and "made false statements" about the election. These, the indictment suggested, "were overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy."
Less than a month later, Trump called Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers "for the purpose of soliciting, requesting, and importuning [him] to unlawfully appoint presidential electors."
Bowers, the indictment stated, replied, "I voted for you. I worked for you. I campaigned for you. I just won't do anything illegal for you."
Alternate elector plans are also being investigated in Michigan and Georgia.
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