Arizona Republican becomes first fake elector to plead guilty...

Arizona Republican becomes first fake elector to plead guilty for role in Trump scheme

It’s the second victory for Arizona prosecutors this week in their sweeping case against many Trump allies.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes charged 11 fake electors, as well as several top Trump allies, in a broad indictment in April. | Ross D. Franklin/AP

By Kyle Cheney

08/06/2024 08:29 PM EDT

Updated:08/06/2024 09:00 PM EDT

An Arizona Republican who falsely claimed to be a legitimate presidential elector for former President Donald Trump — part of a sweeping effort by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election — has pleaded guilty for her role in the scheme.

Lorraine Pellegrino, one of 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely posed as Trump’s electors that year, accepted a guilty plea to a single charge for filing a “false instrument” — the fraudulent Electoral College certificate. The state charge was one of several she faced for allegedly joining in a conspiracy to corrupt Arizona’s election results.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes charged the 11 fake electors, as well as several top Trump allies, in a broad indictment in April. Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case, but he was identified by a state grand jury as an unindicted coconspirator. Trump was also charged federally and in Georgia with felonies arising from his fake elector scheme and other efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.

Pellegrino’s plea deal is the second victory in the Arizona case in as many days for Mayes, a Democrat. Another one of the 18 defendants, former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, began cooperating with prosecutors this week in exchange for a deal to dismiss the charges she faced. Ellis similarly cooperated with prosecutors last year in the Georgia case.

Pellegrino 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. Filings on the Arizona docket indicate that the other charges she faced, including conspiracy and forgery, were dismissed in light of the deal. Other filingsrevealed the terms of her deal, which includes three years of probation and no jail time.

“Loraine Pellegrino’s decision to accept a plea to a lesser charge reflects her desire to move forward and put this matter behind her,” said Pellegrino’s attorney Joshua Kolsrud. “She has taken full responsibility for her actions, demonstrating her commitment to upholding the law and contributing positively to the community. The sentence of unsupervised probation with community service acknowledges her remorse and willingness to make amends.”

After his defeat at the polls in 2020, Trump’s lawyers hatched a plan to convene their own sets of presidential electors in some states where Biden was the certified victor. Initially, the attorneys said the so-called contingent electors were meant as placeholders in case Trump prevailed in any of his lawsuits to overturn the election results.

Trump allies, like Ellis and Rudy Giuliani, also began leaning on Republican state legislatures to certify the Trump electors in order to stoke further proceedings and legal battles. As those efforts faltered, Trump eventually eyed an even more desperate plan: Use the existence of the false slates of electors to foment a controversy on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence were charged with certifying the election results.

Pence refused to accede to the plan, drawing Trump’s fury and ultimately the wrath of a pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol and derailed the electoral vote count for hours that day, threatening the transfer of power.