Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to share materials stemming from its election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump to help with the prosecution of Arizona’s fake electors case.
In a letter sent Sunday, Mayes asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to disclose the Justice Department’s election interference case file and former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s related report.
The material would “help ensure that those who should be held accountable are,” Mayes wrote. She also said she welcomed any exculpatory information Smith had to help protect the rights of the people charged in Arizona.
Mayes said she had previously asked for the materials, but Smith was not ready or able to share them. She said she was revisiting her request since the Justice Department has no active case against Trump and was preparing to release Smith’s report.
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The Justice Department’s election interference case against Trump, which charged he tried to override his defeat in the 2020 election, was dropped after Trump won in November.
Smith resigned from the Justice Department on Friday, according to a court filing submitted Saturday to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida, who oversaw a second now-defunct case brought by Smith about whether Trump mishandled classified documents.
In April, Mayes announced a grand jury had indicted 18 people — 11 Arizona Republicans and seven Trump aides — in a case alleging a criminal conspiracy to subvert the will of voters who elected Democrat Joe Biden president in 2020. Two have resolved their cases, leaving 16 defendants.
There have been several other similar cases nationally, including in Georgia. In her letter, Mayes said the Arizona case is one of the few remaining that includes charges against “national actors.”
