Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A nonprofit drafted a plan to prosecute backers of Donald Trump under Arizona law nearly a year before the state’s Democrat attorney general secured 18 indictments related to Trump’s 2020 campaign.
One of the nonprofit’s founders is a former Obama White House staffer who authored books targeting Trump.
The organization, the States United Democracy Center, provided a 47-page memo to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on July 25, 2023.
The memo outlined the potential criminal case against Trump associates and made repeated references to “Trump himself” as part of what it called a criminal “false electors scheme.”
Mayes recently said that her prosecution of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward—all among 18 Trump associates indicated—would continue despite Trump’s election to a second term.
Recommendations and Results
The July 2023 memo from the States United Democracy Center called for bringing criminal charges under Arizona law for forgery, tampering with public records, criminal impersonation, presentation of a false instrument for filing, fraudulent schemes and practices, and conspiracy.
The grand jury indictment this past April included six counts of forgery; two counts of fraudulent schemes and practices; and one count of conspiracy. Trump was named as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The organization’s memo singled out individuals as targets of prosecution, including Ward as well as Republican activists who were among an alternate slate of Trump electors that signed certificates in case Arizona’s election result was overturned.
Most, but not all, were indicted in April. But the 2023 memo went on to note “others,” including Trump and then-Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
“As established in Section II of this memo, Trump campaign staff and advisers drove the scheme and propelled it forward in the key states, including Arizona,” the memo says. “Trump himself sought and obtained Ronna McDaniel’s help in furtherance of the scheme.”
The center’s memo called for more investigation of the “actions, intent, and knowledge” of Trump and others.
The memo also stressed to Mayes, Arizona’s attorney general, that the 2020 case was not too old to prosecute.
“Statutes of limitations will not provide a barrier to prosecution, so long as the prosecution is brought within the next four years,” the memo says. “Generally, for crimes classified as class 2 through class 6 felonies, the statute of limitations is seven years. … In any event, the relevant statutes of limitations will not bar a timely prosecution. Nor should concerns about timing—given that several years have elapsed since the scheme—preclude prosecution now. Thorough investigations of complex cases take time.”
Arizona’s previous attorney general was a Republican, and the memo notes: “In addition, the voters of the state of Arizona elected a new attorney general [Mayes] who took office in January 2023. Under these facts, the investigation has been diligent, without undue delay.”
Before issuing its memo, the center enthusiastically posted on the social media platform X about Mayes’ plans to “ramping up” the investigation of the 2020 election in Arizona.
In August, the organization posted about one of the indicted Trump supporters who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge.
What Is States United Democracy Center?
The States United Democracy Center was established in 2020 and initially called the Voter Protection Program, according to the Capital Research Center, a Washington-based investigative think tank that monitors nonprofits.
The group was established in anticipation that Trump would lose the 2020 election and challenge the outcome.
One co-founder is Obama White House ethics counsel Norman Eisen, who Barack Obama later appointed as ambassador to the Czech Republic. Eisen was special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment in 2019 over Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s president.
A Washington Post column said Eisen was a “critical force in building the case for impeachment” in the House. Trump eventually was acquitted in the Senate.
Eisen wrote three anti-Trump books: “A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J. Trump” published in July 2020; “Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy” in 2022; and “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial” in 2024.
Eisen is now a senior adviser for the States United Democracy Center.
In fiscal year 2022, the Hopewell Fund, a nonprofit with services managed by the liberal philanthropy consulting firm Arabella Advisors, provided $1.6 million to the States United Democracy Center, according to Cause IQ, a database of nonprofit groups, as well as the Hopewell Fund’s 990 form.
Nonprofit organizations in the Arabella Advisors networks have been among the largest donors to left-leaning causes in recent years.
The Hopewell Fund was not the original source of funding to States United for Democracy Center. The Hopewell Fund previously served as the center’s fiscal sponsor while it was waiting for tax-exempt status. The fund also facilitated charitable contributions to the center as part of that administrative role.
‘Cabal of Powerful People’
When States United was known as the Voter Protection Program, the organization was mentioned in a Time magazine article as part of “a shadow campaign” in 2020.
The magazine said it was part of a larger “cabal of powerful people ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.”
Time’s article quoted Eisen as saying: “The untold story of the election is the thousands of people of both parties who accomplished the triumph of American democracy at its very foundation.”
Other co-founders of the center are former Massachusetts Chief Deputy Attorney General Joanna Lydgate, now CEO of the group, and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican who was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during President George W. Bush’s first term. Whitman is now on the group’s bipartisan advisory board.
The organization stresses its work has never been about partisanship, but is about the rule of law and free, fair, secure elections.
Its advisory board includes Republicans such as Whitman; former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who challenged Trump for the 2020 GOP presidential nomination; two former George W. Bush administration homeland security secretaries, Michael Chertoff and Tom Ridge (also a former Pennsylvania governor); former U.S. Rep. Tom Coleman, R-Mo; and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
States United has noted that it has filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of former Califronia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as well as Weld, Whitman, and former Justice Department officials who are Republicans.
Richie Taylor, spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, told The Daily Signal that the office doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations.
States United Democracy Center didn’t comment specifically about the memo for this report.
The Hopewell Fund did not comment for the record.
Arabella Advisors did not respond to inquiries.
Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. He is the author of “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections.”
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Fred Lucas
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Kris Mays using her office to exact revenge on political opponents? Sure, she’s only doing what any George Soros puppet would do.
The left loudly warned voters that Trump would use his office, if elected to the presidency again, as a vehicle of revenge against his political rivals. Is that the pot calling the kettle black or what? However; Trump only needs to follow the constitution and the law for the left to deem it as revenge. They’ve destroyed our justice system by weaponizing it and prosecuting political opponents while ignoring a vast majority of illegal activity of their own cohorts. They’ve been operating under the presumption of winning the presidency and congress again; Therefore, they wouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. Well, that didn’t happen! Fire away President Trump. Keep it legal and within the law, but don’t hold back. These idiots need a taste of their own medicine and it’s best when it’s done legally.
Well doing a quick look-up of who are the founders of States United Democracy Center, it reads like it’s another Never Trumpers group. If that is the case, then it is likely financed by the same folks that have been trying to destroy Trump and his followers since Trump eliminated Jeb Bush from the GOP primary process in 2016 and ended the Bush dynasty in the White House. Essentially the Bush family and some of the major financial donors to Jeb’s campaign, along with some former members of the G.W. Bush administration and old guard RNC.
Every treasonous puke who is determined to stop Trump is worried about it’s own political future and the place at the trove. Not one of them gives a whit about the constituent or the country.
There are many nonprofit organizations that work like shadows in the background. Reading off the names of so called ‘Republicans’ in this group solidifies that the US has entire operations from people associated with HW Bush & Obama and their ilk. These organizations work against the American People, in the shadows, undermining all that could be positive in gov’t and it’s agencies while ripping off the US Treasury by utilizing nonprofit status.
Also in this case, the taxpayers of Arizona are getting fleeced while the elitist garbage protect their way of doing business as usual. Amazing that they are selling their purpose as defending free, fair, and secure elections while Arizona is one of the most corrupt states that disenfranchised voters on a regular basis.
I am so sick of these Anti-American THUGS! They need to go!! Apparently they’re not happy and love drama and violence!!
I pray Trump takes back our country in a huge way and implements policies that make it impossible to change.
Like Marc Elias, Norman Eisen seems to be one of the brainy lawyers behind the Far Left’s takeover of the Democrat Party. I wonder if Norman was a member of any radical student groups in college or if his parents were also Marxists or followers of Saul Alinsky? They all follow the “Rules for Radicals” playbook, accusing their enemies of what they are actually doing.
Trump needs to do full scale investigation and prosecution of Democrats. It’s not pay back, it’s the enforcement of existing law
Taxpayer-funded. Non-profit. Isn’t there a LAW against this type of legal maneuvering? Glad the paperwork is available for the record. Hope there is a LOT more. Doesn’t some journalist with ETHICS somewhere want tot win a Pulitzer by exposing this story?
Many countries’ leaders persecute (and sometimes kill) their political opponents. Have we descended to that level? Certainly sounds like we are on the way. Banana Republic here we come…a pox on States United Democracy Center.
The “selected” (not elected) Arizona AG will likely be assuming room temperature sometime soon should she persist.
These people in power need to earn their paycheck by dealing with the real criminals and earn their paycheck. I wonder if Kris Mays will run for office again, huh??? What a waste of tax dollars.
The fact that AZ had election issues in 2022 and 2024 lends great credence to fraud in the 2020 election. Let the court hear all the evidence in a fair and impartial trial/setting and Mays will be dealt a major LOSS!
READ THIS!!! All of you “religious” non profits. They already know what they will do to you.So don’t just fall into their traps thinking you are being “charitable”. All you are doing is killing your own!
Without any conscience. Democrats and Rinos included.
knew Obama would be involved.
She can sit on it sideways and twirl.
And the left kept talking about the 2025 Project?? Are you kidding me? This is just as bad, but where is the outrage from the right about that? There are way too many groups out there like this that we don’t even know about. Think tanks and nefarious non-profits whose names make one think they are to do good. All this money influencing the election process needs to stop. An election should not be bought. Thank God enough people came out to make their voices heard to put sanity back into the White House. Of course none of these people will comment on the story. Why would they show their true intentions? As for Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Republicans, they are RINOs.
Well liberal,leftists,marxists,have at it,AMERICA voted and you lost.I am eighty five years old and hope that I will not live long enough to see a civil war in AMERICA,but that is what the liberal,leftist,marxists want,just be very careful what you wish for.It would not be pretty.
Makes you reminiscent of the good old days when it was just ACORN you had to worry about!
There is a lot more to add to this story. First of all this begins with the governor race in 2022 between Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs. Kari Lake asked her voters to please come and vote in person instead of mail in votes. So on election day people showed up to vote and there was a big problem. It seems only In Republican areas of Arizona that there was a failure of up to 50%of the machines because they were getting jammed. It turned out later that the paper used in those machines were 1/8 inch of difference in size. What is important to note is that Katie Hobbs was secretary of state from 2019 to 2022 and was in charge of the elections and equipment. And even though I know a lot of Republicans that didn’t get to vote that day because of the high failure rate of equipment that Hobbs still barely won against Kari Lake. And so this is where AG Kris Mayes fits into this she only beat her opponent Abraham Hanadeh by a measly 280 votes. For Kris Mayes to charge all these Republicans with felonies I think there needs to be a huge investigation into our elections in Arizona. Look how is it fair the person That ran for governor Katie Hobbs didn’t show up for any Debates against Kari Lake and the fact she was in control of the election. And now for Kris Mayes to come after Republicans like she is doing I think it’s very important to shut this crew down here in Az. Kris Mayes shouldn’t be going after anyone. She belongs in prison with Obama and Biden and Clinton and Hobbs.
I would be interested in learning to what the democrats dislike about Trump that they always have to be intent on destroying Trump and his supporters. Was it peace in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords? Was it the secure border and DNA testing of minors to be certain they were travelling with family instead of traffickers? Was it a good relationship with North Korea? Was it low inflation and high job numbers? The left seems to be revealing what kind of world they want by fighting against Trump.
gop officials who switched 200000 arizona ballots from democrat to republican should be prosecuted
The gallows built for Trump will be used on the builders…
Oh nice, another one of those fake groups masquerading as…
This further demands that term limits be moved high onto the list of things that need to be addressed and implemented early on in the next four years. After Immigration, Term Limits, then Economy, and Voter Fraud …. all while attempting to keep us out of WW3, that the democrats are united in starting prior to his taking office.
arizona gop officials should be arrested for switching democrat ballots to republican which is illegal