Current:Home > MyRepublican activist becomes first person to be convicted in Arizona’s fake elector case -NextFrontier Finance
Republican activist becomes first person to be convicted in Arizona’s fake elector case
View
Date:2025-04-16 13:48:12
PHOENIX (AP) — A Republican activist who signed a document falsely claiming Donald Trump had won Arizona in 2020 became the first person to be convicted in the state’s fake elector case.
Loraine Pellegrino, a past president of the group Ahwatukee Republican Women, has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false document, Arizona Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Richie Taylor said Tuesday, declining to comment further. Records documenting her guilty plea haven’t yet been posted by the court. Still, court records show Pellegrino was sentenced to unsupervised probation. Before the plea, she faced nine felony charges.
Seventeen other people had been charged in the case, including 10 other Republicans who had signed a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried Arizona in the 2020 election. President Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes. Joshua Kolsrud, an attorney representing Pellegrino, said in a statement that his client has accepted responsibility for her actions. “Loraine Pellegrino’s decision to accept a plea to a lesser charge reflects her desire to move forward and put this matter behind her,” Kolsrud said.
On Monday, former Trump’s campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, entered a cooperation agreement with prosecutors who have asked for her charges to be dismissed. The remaining defendants, including Giuliani and Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows, have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.
Pellegrino and 10 other people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors had met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign the false document. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.
Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.
Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges in late April. Overall, charges were brought against 11 Republicans who submitted the document falsely declaring Trump had won Arizona, five lawyers connected to the former president and two former Trump aides.
Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment.
veryGood! (981)
Related
- Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
- Michigan’s New Governor Puts Climate Change at Heart of Government
- Astro-tourism: Expert tips on traveling to see eclipses, meteor showers and elusive dark skies from Earth
- Mother singer Meghan Trainor welcomes second baby with husband Daryl Sabara
- Sam Taylor
- Atlantic Coast Pipeline Faces Civil Rights Complaint After Key Permit Is Blocked
- Clues From Wines Grown in Hot, Dry Regions May Help Growers Adapt to a Changing Climate
- See the Shocking Fight That Caused Teresa Giudice to Walk Out of the RHONJ Reunion
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- As Congress Launches Month of Climate Hearings, GOP Bashes Green New Deal
Ranking
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- 3 Arctic Wilderness Areas to Watch as Trump Tries to Expand Oil & Gas Drilling
- Ohio Weighs a Nuclear Plant Bailout at FirstEnergy’s Urging. Will It Boost Renewables, Too?
- Watchdog faults ineffective Border Patrol process for release of migrant on terror watchlist
- 'Vanderpump Rules' star DJ James Kennedy arrested on domestic violence charges
- Warming Trends: Big Cat Against Big Cat, Michael Mann’s New Book and Trump Greenlights Killing Birds
- For a City Staring Down the Barrel of a Climate-Driven Flood, A New Study Could be the Smoking Gun
- Los Angeles sheriff disturbed by video of violent Lancaster arrest by deputies
Recommendation
Travis Hunter, the 2
TikToker Allison Kuch Is Pregnant, Expecting First Baby With NFL Star Isaac Rochell
As Warming Oceans Bring Tough Times to California Crab Fishers, Scientists Say Diversifying is Key to Survival
Many Overheated Forests May Soon Release More Carbon Than They Absorb
Travis Hunter, the 2
Do fireworks affect air quality? Here's how July Fourth air pollution has made conditions worse
Despite Capitol Hill Enthusiasm for Planting Crops to Store Carbon, Few Farmers are Doing It, Report Finds
John Berylson, Millwall Football Club owner, dead at 70 in Cape Cod car crash