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.