PHOENIX — From the moment another news organization called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night in 2020, Donald Trump and the state have been forever linked to the events and investigation of what happened on January 6th.
In the indictment against Trump, Arizona is mentioned 42 times.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith appears to have used a significant portion of the testimony former Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers gave last year to the congressional committee investigating the January 6th events at the nation's Capitol.
The indictment includes Bowers recounting phone conversations between then-President Trump and two of the co-conspirators listed in the indictment.
One of those calls Bowers recounted happened on a Sunday afternoon as he was pulling into his driveway from church.
Rudy Guilliani, who is believed to be co-conspirator number one in the indictment, and Trump wanted Bowers to find a way to throw out the results of the Arizona election. "For somebody to do that because they just asked me to is foreign to my very being. I will not do it," Bowers told the committee.
The January 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol had just started when Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar addressed the floor of the U.S. House. "I rise for myself and 60 of my colleagues to object to counting the electoral ballots from Arizona," Gosar declared.
The Arizona congressman's denunciation of the state's Presidential Election results triggered the final act, in a failed bid, to make Donald Trump the winner of Arizona.
A few months earlier, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, then-Arizona Governor Doug Ducey shared with reporters his special ringtone for President Trump, 'Hail to the Chief.'
So when that song rang at the moment the governor was certifying the vote, everyone knew it was Trump calling. In fact, Trump or his lawyers called Arizona Republican leaders trying to get them to change his loss to a win. It didn't work.
Bowers told the January 6th committee, "My recollection, he (Rudolf Guilliani) said, we have lots of theories we just don't have evidence."
But others were willing to help Trump.
On December 14, 2020, Kelli Ward, then-Arizona Republican Party chair, presided over a slate of fake electors who pledged their electoral votes to Donald Trump.
There is nothing in Arizona law or the state constitution that allows for a second set of electors. Among the people who signed on as fake electors are current state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, and former candidate for U.S. Senate Jim Lamon.
Kelli Ward is among a handful of Arizonans the special prosecutor subpoenaed for documents, records or interviews.
"I don't know what they're looking for," said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, whose office received a subpoena for documents related to the 2020 election. "I don't know what lines of the investigation they're pursuing. All I do know is that when we got those subpoenas, we complied."
Now, after the release of the 45-page indictment against Donald Trump, we have a better idea of what the Special Prosecutor wanted.
