Arizona’s Governor ‘Absolutely’ Urges State Attorney General To Prosecute Trump

The governor of Arizona’s urging of her state attorney general to prosecute President Trump could signal that the former president’s fourth indictment may not be his final one.At Phoenix, Governor Hobbs on Tuesday was asked by reporters whether she would “like to see Arizona’s attorney general follow suit with Georgia and Michigan and move forward on pressing charges against President Trump?” She replied, “Absolutely. 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.” The governor added that “accountability is critical. I don’t think we’re going to change direction until there’s accountability at the top level,” an apparent reference to Mr. Trump. She opined that the charges brought by District Attorney Fani Willis are an “important step forward that I think should move forward and play out in the legal process.”Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, who like Ms. Hobbs is a Democrat, has said that an investigation into Mr. Trump and his allies is under way. Her probe is believed to be centering on Mr. Trump’s “alternate electors” in Arizona, who include the state’s former Republican chairwoman, Kelli Ward, and two state lawmakers, Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman. Ms. Mayes’s office told Fox 10 Phoenix on Tuesday that it “cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.” It should be noted that Ms. Mayes won her office by 280 votes, one of the closest races in Arizona history.After Ms. Hobbs’s Tuesday comments on the indictment landed with a thunderclap, her office sought to walk them back, saying that she “misheard the question” and “was responding generally about her belief that anyone who breaks the law must be held accountable for working to overturn free and fair elections.” She pledged to forswear “political interference.” Indeed, even in their amended version, Ms. Hobbs’s comments raise the specter of other states following Fulton County’s — and Manhattan’s — lead in pursuing charges against the 45th president. Should Mr. Trump be convicted in a state court, the federal pardon power would be unavailable, even if he returns to the White House. Arizona’s governor does have pardoning power, but a pardon must first be recommended by the state’s Board of Executive Clemency.A former Republican governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, told Fox 10 Phoenix that she expects Ms. Mayes to move against Mr. Trump. “I do,” Ms. Brewer said. “I do believe our attorney general is going to move forward on some kind of disciplinary action.” Arizona, a newly minted swing state like Georgia, is no stranger to grappling over the results of the 2020 election. The special counsel, Jack Smith, has spoken to the former Republican governor, Doug Ducey. The Washington Post reports that Mr. Trump called the governor while he was certifying his state’s election results, urging delay. Mr. Ducey muted the call and rang back Mr Trump after the certification ceremony. The Arizona Republic first reported that Mr. Smith’s attention was drawn by the presence of alternate electors pledged to Mr. Trump despite President Biden having won the state. The prosecutor was also reportedly scrutinizing Mr. Trump’s lawsuit contesting those results. Mr. Smith’s indictment takes notice of a pair of phone calls between Mr. Trump and the former speaker of the Arizona house of representatives, Rusty Bowers. Mr. Bowers related to the January 6 committee that he told Mr. Trump, “I voted for you. I worked for you. I campaigned for you,” but “I just won’t do anything illegal for you.” On the basis of those parleys, the special counsel avers that Mr. Trump “solicited, requested, and importuned Bowers to unlawfully appoint presidential electors from Arizona.” Mr. Smith has charged Mr. Trump with conspiracy and obstruction crimes relating to those calls, and others, like the one to Georgia’s secretary of state, Bradley Raffensperger. While Mr. Trump has maintained that the election was “stolen,” an audit by the office of Arizona’s attorney general found “no evidence of election fraud, manipulation or the election process, or any instances of organized/coordinated fraud.” Vice President Pence confirms that he spoke to Mr. Ducey in the wake of the election, but that he exerted “no pressure” to overturn the results. Mr. Trump was not the only one who viewed the election results with gimlet eyes. A broadcaster who in 2022 challenged Ms. Hobbs for the governorship and lost, Kari Lake, has opined that she would not have certified Mr. Biden’s victory in 2020. She tells Newsmax that when it comes to Mr. Trump’s current legal predicaments, the former president is “playing chess at the highest level” while Mr. Smith is “playing checkers.”Mr. Ducey, while he rebuffed Mr. Trump’s efforts to undo the election’s outcome, tells Fox, “I am concerned about continuing indictments. I think we’re on number four. I’m concerned about how this is going to affect the electorate, the respect for the rule of law, and equal justice.”

Arizona’s Governor ‘Absolutely’ Urges State Attorney General To Prosecute Trump

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