by Matthew Holloway | Jun 1, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Mark Meadows, former White House Chief of Staff, has filed a motion for the Maricopa County Superior Court to dismiss charges against him related to the prosecution of Arizona’s Republican alternate electors. Meadows argues that the charges made by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes are “politically motivated.”
“Today we filed in the Arizona court a motion to dismiss Kris Mayes’s politically motivated charges against Mr. Meadows, which are clearly forbidden by the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause,” said Meadows’ attorney George J. Terwilliger III. “The West Wing of the White House is the beating heart of the Executive Branch, and the Supremacy Clause bars states from attempting to police federal officials, like Mr. Meadows, who worked there. For too long, Mr. Meadows has been wrongfully included in this case and the Attorney General ought to admit the error of her ways and voluntarily dismiss this case now.”
As reported by KJZZ, another of Meadow’s attorneys, Ann Chapman, explained, “States lack jurisdiction to prosecute federal officials for conduct taken within the scope of their federal offices and duties because the Supremacy Clause bars such claims.”
Chapman emphasized that given Meadows lacked any role in President Trump’s campaign, everything he did was in his capacity as White House Chief of Staff. She told the outlet that “Meadows held no role in the president’s reelection campaign,” and that he was “responsible in his capacity as chief of staff for coordinating the president’s time and attention with the campaign.”
In April 2024, Mayes indicted 18 defendants, including Arizona’s 11 alternate electors who prepared a contingent certification for President Donald Trump after the 2020 election, naming Trump an “unindicted co-conspirator.” Earlier this month. the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled that Attorney General Kris Mayes must redo her entire case.
Richie Taylor, a spokesman for the Arizona Attorney General, stated, “We vehemently disagree with the court, and we will file a special action to appeal the ruling.”
Mel McDonald, a former metro Phoenix county judge and U.S. Attorney for Arizona, explained to the Associated Press that courts remand cases to grand juries when prosecutors present misleading or incomplete evidence or fail to properly instruct jurors on the law.
“They get granted at times,” he said, but noted, “It’s not often.”
On May 19, 2025, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam J. Myers dealt a significant setback to prosecutors by ordering the case against seven Trump campaign advisors and the 11 alternate electors back to a grand jury. Myers ruled that Mayes’ team failed to provide the text of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, central to the defense’s argument.
Defense attorney Stephen Binhak told the Washington Post, “We are extremely pleased with the court’s ruling, and we think the judge got it exactly right.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | Mar 28, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Court of Appeals judge in the “alternate electors” case donated to Attorney General Mayes when she was campaigning on prosecuting President Donald Trump’s 2020 electors.
On Wednesday, the day after Attorney General Kris Mayes asked the court to reject the lower court’s ruling, the appeals court held oral arguments in the alternate electors case.
The appeals court judge on the case, Andrew Jacobs, was appointed by Governor Katie Hobbs in February 2023. Jacobs donated $500 to Mayes’ campaign for the office in 2022. At the time, Jacobs was an attorney with Snell and Wilmer.
Several days after Mayes promised publicly to investigate the 2020 electors, Jacobs submitted his first donation to her campaign.
“I would have immediately investigated the alternate electors as Attorney General,” said Mayes. “Arizona needs a #LawyerForthePeople.”
Jacobs submitted his second donation to Mayes’ campaign the day after an Arizona Republic article emerged highlighting the differences between her and then-opponent (now congressman) Abe Hamadeh.
A source that observed the emergency hearing described Jacobs as “hostile” to the electors. During oral arguments, the conflict of interest was raised, however, Jacbos still voted on an issue in the case, the decision to grant a stay.
Last month, Maricopa County Judge Sam Myers ruled the 2020 electors, 16 in total, provided sufficient evidence that Mayes’ case against them may be dismissable for violating Arizona’s Anti-SLAPP law.
Anti-SLAPP, or “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” imposes civil liability against any state actor that brings or maintains a legal action substantially motivated by a desire to deter, retaliation against, or prevent free speech and association.
Myers said the 2020 electors demonstrated their actions to comprise “at least in part some arguably lawful speech.” Myers cited Mayes’ remarks announcing the indictments as potential proof of a political motivation behind her prosecution.
Mayes disagreed with the ruling. The attorney general said the 2020 creation of an alternate elector slate didn’t constitute free speech and shouldn’t be afforded constitutional protections.
“It is not the lawful exercise of free speech to file forged slates of electors to deprive Arizona voters of their right to vote,” said Mayes.
In order to counter Myers’ ruling, Mayes had to prove in a brief due earlier this week that she wasn’t motivated by a desire to retaliate or deter the 2020 electors’ free speech rights.
The outcome of that motion to dismiss the case remains pending.
Myers did deny motions to dismiss Mayes’ case last week, however. The motions claimed Mayes lacked authority to bring the case to court and failed to allege crimes committed.
Last November, the first judge on the case, Bruce Cohen, recused himself after emails emerged in which he ordered his fellow judges to come to the defense of then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The defendants in the case include former AZGOP Chair Dr. Kelli Ward, Dr. Michael Ward, former executive director of the AZGOP Greg Safsten, former Arizona State Senator Anthony Kern, former Senate Candidate Jim Lamon, former Cochise County Republican Committee chair Robert Montgomery, former Cochise County Republican Committee chair Samuel Moorhead, Arizona State Senator Jake Hoffman, Turning Point USA COO Tyler Bowyer, and attorneys John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Christina Bobb, as well as President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Campaign Aide Boris Epshteyn, and director of Election Day operations Mike Roman.
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by Staff Reporter | Sep 18, 2024 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona District Court declined to assume jurisdiction in the prosecution of Mark Meadows for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
The court remanded the case back to the Maricopa County Superior Court. In the order issued on Monday, Judge John Tuchi said that Meadows’ actions concerning the 2020 election aren’t covered by the “color of office” afforded by his role as chief of staff to former President Donald Trump.
“The Court finds that Mr. Meadows fails to present good cause for his untimely filing of his Notice of Removal, and that in any event, an evaluation on the merits yields that he fails to demonstrate that the conduct charged in the state’s prosecution relates to his former color of office as Chief of Staff to the President,” wrote Tuchi.
An Arizona grand jury dropped felony indictments on Trump’s 2020 electors and their alleged conspirators, among them Meadows, earlier this year. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes accused the 18 indicted of participating in an organized “scheme” intending to “prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency.”
Mayes alleged that Meadows worked with members of the Trump campaign to coordinate and implement Arizona’s false Republican electors following the 2020 election. Meadows argued that his actions pertaining to the aftermath of the 2020 election were covered by his asserted official authority as chief of staff to the president. The district court disagreed, mainly due to Meadows’ lack of justification given for his argument.
“Indeed, rather than make any additional or alternative factual assertions to support his invocation of federal jurisdiction, Mr. Meadows simply quotes the State’s indictment verbatim,” wrote Tuchi. “Not only has Mr. Meadows not disputed any of the foregoing facts, but he has necessarily relied upon them. […] In other words, this is not a case in which opposing parties offer competing facts; rather, it is a case in which the parties offer competing characterizations of identical facts.”
Tuchi wrote that Meadows didn’t justify how his actions pertaining to the 2020 election fell under the proper scope and content of his job responsibilities as chief of staff, as Ninth Circuit precedent requires. Tuchi rejected Meadows’ characterization of his actions as a mere middleman of communication between the president and others.
“Contrary to Mr. Meadows’s assertions, the State has not indicted Mr. Meadows for merely facilitating communication to and from the President or for simply staying abreast of campaign goings-on. Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme,” wrote Tuchi. “To allow Mr. Meadows to recharacterize the State’s indictment at the level of generality that he seeks to do would be to vitiate both the federal officer removal statute and the Supreme Court precedent interpreting that statute, as every criminal prosecution of a federal officer will in some vague sense involve that officer’s staying ‘apprised of what is happening.’”
The court also rejected Meadows’ reasoning for his untimeliness in filing his notice of removal: his pursuit of an effort to convince the state to drop the charges against him, and his awaiting a Supreme Court decision in the case Trump v. United States that would lend to his immunity defense.
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