In a recent development in the Arizona election fraud case, lawyers Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis, along with former U.S. Senate candidate James Lamon, have pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges. These charges stem from their alleged involvement in attempting to overturn former President Donald Trump's Arizona election loss to Joe Biden.
The arraignment hearing took place in a Phoenix courtroom and marked the final round of 18 arraignments in the fake elector case. Notably, 15 other individuals, including Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, also pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Epshteyn, a Trump adviser, is accused of collaborating with Giuliani to submit fake electors for Trump in Arizona and obstruct the certification of election results by Congress on January 6, 2021. Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.
Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges in late April against 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump as the winner in Arizona. Among the defendants are five lawyers associated with the former president and two former Trump aides. It is important to note that Biden won Arizona by a margin exceeding 10,000 votes.
Although Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case, he was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment. Ellis, on the other hand, is accused of making false claims of widespread election fraud in Arizona and six other states, urging the Arizona Legislature to alter the election outcome, and pushing then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept Arizona's fake elector votes.
Lamon, a businessman who lost a 2022 Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, is alleged to have falsely claimed he was a duly elected and qualified elector. Prosecutors highlighted that Lamon did not retract his vote despite no successful legal challenge altering the outcome in Arizona.
The 11 individuals who claimed to be Arizona's Republican electors convened in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to sign a certificate asserting that they were 'duly elected and qualified' electors and stating that Trump had won the state. A brief video of the signing ceremony was shared on social media by the Arizona Republican Party. The document was subsequently sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was disregarded.
