Arizona fake Trump elector takes plea deal

What happened

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) on Tuesday secured a guilty plea from one of 11 Republicans who falsely attested that Donald Trump won the state in 2020, part of a broader scheme to overturn President Joe Biden's electoral victory. A grand jury indicted the 11 fake electors and seven other Trump allies in April. Another of the 18 defendants, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, agreed Monday to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for the state dropping nine felony charges.

Who said what

Fake elector Lorraine Pellegrino, who pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge after more serious charges were dropped, is the "first participant in the elector scheme to accept criminal responsibility for signing the false documents, though dozens have been charged in a handful of states," Politico said.

Ellis also accepted a cooperation agreement last year in Fulton County, Georgia — the only of five state fake-elector cases where Trump himself was indicted. Court records unsealed Tuesday showed the Arizona grand jury "wanted to indict him, too," The New York Times said, but prosecutors dissuaded them.

What next?

The Arizona case "is not expected to go to trial until next year at the earliest," The Times said. The Georgia case is "bogged down in litigation," but a similar federal case in Washington is "set to spring back to life next week after eight months in limbo" when the presiding judge decides how to apply the Supreme Court's recent grant of broad immunity to Trump.

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