The Arizona attorney general’s investigation into the coordinated attempt to overturn the 2020 election results by creating and sending documents to the federal government falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner is also zeroing in on the pressure placed on local officials by the president’s key allies to help avert his loss, according tofour people familiar with the criminal probe.
Investigators for Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) have interviewed all current and former Republican members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who certified the 2020 presidential election results from the Phoenix area and came under intense pressure from Trump’s top national and local allies and angry supporters, according to the four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive investigation. They have also interviewed former House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R), who testified last year to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani asked him to investigate unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and set in motion a strategy to replace chosen electors with another group more favorable to Trump.
Those familiar with the witness interviews say the new line of questioning marks the first time local prosecutors have shown interest in examining the pressure campaign and could signal that Mayes mightexpand the scope of the investigation, which thus far has narrowly focused on the 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely portrayed themselves as the state’s legitimate electors after Trump’s loss. The supervisors had little or no interaction with most of the electors.