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NEW YORK (AP) — An indictment made public on Friday against Arizona’s top election official accuses him of accepting bribes to influence the 2020 presidential election results in the state, adding to the escalating push by supporters of former President Donald Trump to re-litigate his loss.
The accusations against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs were included in one of two indictments unsealed by the Justice Department to coincide with the traditional ceremony for confirming the Electoral College results. The indictments are the first to be made public by the Justice Department since it started to investigate efforts to misuse the Electoral College in Trump’s favor.
The indictments accuse Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and three other state party officials of working together to issue fraudulent documents to get around requirements that electors be chosen by state legislatures, according to the Justice Department.
The charges suggest that prosecutors believe the effort was not only intended to fake the election results but also meant to keep President Joe Biden from taking office.
“This indictment sends a clear message that attempts to corrupt and subvert the will of the voters will be met with the full force of the law,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Trump has been focused on using lies and conspiracy theories to create disarray following his loss to Biden in last year’s election. This week, he seized on a report about a European cybersecurity official who said, irrationally, that there was no evidence of voter fraud during the election.
The indictment against Hobbs has nothing to do with the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt the certification of the Electoral College results. But as the investigation continues, it could draw in additional figures connected to Trump and the attacks that unfolded that day.
Both indictments focus on what are known as “alternate” electors, which were chosen by state political parties as a shadow group of electors to cast the state’s electoral votes for Trump rather than Biden.