Facing trial for attempting to overturn Arizona’s election results in 2020, Donald Trump’s allies are digging deep into state code to find a way out of the criminal charges.
Judge Bruce Cohen, who set a January 2026 trial date for the case, has spent the week listening to the defendants’ arguments that the charges should be dismissed on free speech grounds and over technicalities on certification deadlines. The three-day hearing ended Wednesday, with the possibility of another virtual hearing at a later point.
If Cohen finds the arguments have merit, it would deal a major blow to the prosecution’s case and vindicate the electors in their argument that their efforts to deliver electoral votes to Trump were constitutional. This could lead to potential chaos in future presidential elections, emboldening actors from a losing candidate’s party to submit their electors to Congress.