Lawfare-Pushing AG Can’t Quit Witch Hunt Against Trump Allies

Her shoddy case shot through, leftist Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes apparently isn’t done tormenting her party’s political enemies— allies of President Donald Trump — just yet. 

On Thursday, Mayes’ office said she would go back to the drawing board and seek a new indictment against Republican officials caught up in her insatiable weaponized prosecution for crimes she claims were committed following the rigged 2020 presidential election. The announcement came shortly after the Arizona Supreme Court denied the state’s appeal to resurrect the moribund political witch hunt. 

“The Arizona Attorney General’s Office will return this case to the grand jury,” Richie Taylor, spokesman for the AG, said in a statement. “We decline to comment further at this time.”

A prosecution years in the making, Mayes ultimately in May 2024 got a grand jury to indict 18 people, including former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, constitutional scholar John Eastman, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and 11 Arizona Republicans who served as alternate electors in 2020. Trump was cited as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

‘Unlawful Secrecy’

Mayes, like her fellow Democrat lawfare practitioners in other swing states, pushed charges of fraud, forgery and conspiracy charges against the conservatives. They are accused of serving as “fake” presidential electors bent on unlawfully overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s razor-thin win in the Grand Canyon State.  

After pleading not guilty to the charges against him, Eastman expressed confidence that, if the laws were faithfully applied, he would be “fully exonerated at the end of the process.” 

The laws have not been faithfully applied and the weaponization rolls on. Meanwhile, Arizona’s top law enforcement agent has broken the law multiple times in her crooked attempt to keep her flimsy electors case alive.

The state court of appeals recently found that Mayes illegally withheld communications between the AG’s office and the leftist States United Democracy Center. The leftist election law group reportedly advised Mayes’ office on a pathway to indict the alternate electors.  

Nonprofit tracker InfluenceWatch says States United Democracy Center “was founded as one of many organizing coalitions and left-leaning strategy groups to coordinate left-leaning advocacy groups and Democratic campaign committees in the event that then-President Donald Trump lost and subsequently contested the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.” Norm Eisen, a left-leaning lawyer who served as the “Ethics Czar” in the Obama White House, founded the organization.

Judicial Watch sued the attorney general, who insisted the documents sought were protected by attorney-client privilege. The judge disagreed. 

“Judicial Watch is excited that the court has slapped back the unlawful secrecy about anti-Trump lawfare abuse by Arizona’s AG Kris Mayes,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “We are pushing hard in court for full disclosure about the details of what looks to be a conspiracy by the AG’s office to punish Trump supporters for exercising their fundamental rights.”  

An appeals court later rejected Mayes’ motion to resume her crooked case against the president’s allies. She weighed her options, her spokesman insisting that the case “has never been about anything other than preserving democracy and upholding the rule of law.”

‘This Obsession is not Justice’

Arizona GOP chairwoman Gina Swoboda at the time told the Arizona Capitol Times to “stop wasting time and taxpayer resources on partisan lawfare.”

“Five years later, Kris Mayes is still fixated on 2020 while violent crime, fentanyl trafficking, and border chaos threaten our communities every single day,” Swoboda said in the statement. “This obsession is not justice — it’s politics.”

Mayes then opted to take her appeal to the state Supreme Court. She still can’t quit the weaponized campaign despite being forced to start all over again. 

“Good news out of Arizona today. The AZ S.Ct. denied AG Kris Mayes’ appeal of the decision to throw out the original grand jury indictment in the Trump electors case because of her biased presentation of the case,” Eastman wrote on X Thursday. “She immediately announced she’ll convene a new grand jury. But there is also the finding of her First Amendment violations to contend with. I have the Court order and key briefs about that over at my substack.” 

Similar alternate elector cases have collapsed in other states like Georgia, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. In Michigan, a district court judge tossed out the bogus felony charges against 15 Republicans, finding the defendants, “were executing their constitutional right to seek redress.”

Another politically-driven case in Wisconsin survives despite being marred by controversy. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.