The Jan. 6 Capitol riot probe is targeting Trump. Here's what to know about Arizona's role

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is the target of a criminal investigation over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, citing a letter that typically means an indictment is imminent.

With the pro-Trump mob's deadly attack moving back into the legal spotlight, it’s worth noting that Arizona figured prominently in the failed effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Here are five things to remember:

Arizona was the closest contest in the country

President Joe Biden won Arizona by fewer than 11,000 votes, the slimmest margin in the nation. That always meant that Trump and his allies saw Arizona as among the key states he needed to reverse.

That led to a direct pressure campaign from Trump and others to convince then-Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, and then-Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, to assign electoral votes as determined by the Republican-led state Legislature rather than the state’s popular vote that went to Biden.

When Bowers rejected the suggestion as not permitted by state law and lacking in evidence, Trump’s allies pushed on other fronts to sidestep the formal election results.

Bowers has said the FBI interviewed him earlier this year about Trump’s calls to him in the weeks after the 2020 election.

Arizona participated in the fake electors plan

As Trump’s hopes faded for legislatures in crucial states to quickly bypass voters, his allies pressed ahead with another legal longshot: submitting alternate electors.

Arizona was among the states that submitted paperwork purporting to show Trump had won its electors. In December 2020, Republicans gathered at the state party’s headquarters to sign documents suggesting that Trump had won Arizona.

People working with Trump helped direct the effort and it was carried out despite misgivings from at least one of the state GOP’s lawyers, Phoenix lawyer Jack Wilenchik, who helped convene the would-be electors.

In an email, first obtained by the New York Times, he said they could submit the fake electors “even though the votes aren’t legal under federal law — because they’re not signed by the governor.”

Trump’s allies hoped the dual slates of electors would serve as a justification for slowing or reversing the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of Biden’s victory.

The effort collapsed when then-Vice President Mike Pence refused to consider the fake electors. That is when a pro-Trump mob violently stormed the Capitol, halting the process for hours.

Feds have eyed key GOP officials in Arizona

Federal authorities have long looked to Arizona officials as having significant evidence about the plot to overturn the election.

A year ago, the House select committee that investigated the riot interviewed Kelli Ward, the now-former chair of the Arizona Republican Party who headed the fake electors plan and who quietly pressed election officials during the counting phase to work in Trump’s interests.

She invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination to deflect the questions, but she lost in a bid to keep her phone records secret from investigators.

Her husband, Michael, who also was a fake elector, also was subpoenaed over his role.

The Democrat-led House committee sought but didn’t receive testimony from U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who called the probe a partisan effort to smear Republicans.

Biggs and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., attended a December 2020 strategy meeting at the White House that could be among the most critical events to understanding the legal and political efforts afoot ahead of the election-certification meeting at the Capitol.

Biggs and Gosar praised by Stop the Steal leader

Ali Alexander, architect of the Stop the Steal rallies, has boasted that Biggs and Gosar helped plan the event by his group in Washington. He famously called Gosar the "spirit animal" of Stop the Steal and described Biggs as a hero of the movement during a 2020 rally in Phoenix.

Alexander said in federal court documents that he had "a few phone conversations" with Gosar and spoke to Biggs "in person" in the days before Jan. 6, 2021, something Biggs has denied.

Alexander also had ties to former state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, and former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, who spoke at Stop the Steal rallies and were at the Capitol Jan. 6.

Keep reading: 'We own all of Arizona': 'Stop the Steal' leader has deep connections with Arizona Republicans

The Jan. 6, 2021, rioters included Arizonans

Last year’s hearings included testimony that a group from Arizona helped escalate tensions just before the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol.

A U.S. Capitol Police officer said that the arrival of the orange-clad group of Proud Boys turned the situation more dire. The officer, Caroline Edwards, said that after the Arizona group of Proud Boys joined the confrontation at the police line, the attacks through the megaphone became personal and pointed against the officers.

A witness who was documenting the Proud Boys that day told the Jan. 6 committee he thought it was unusual that the group walked to the Capitol before Trump started speaking, which was ostensibly the reason for being in Washington, D.C., at all.

Edward Vallejo, an Army veteran and member of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to three years in prison for seditious conspiracy over his role in the riot. He was part of a “quick reaction force team” tasked with providing weapons to the rioters if Trump had declared martial law.

Of course, Jake Angeli, the Phoenix man known as the “QAnon shaman,” was perhaps the most notorious symbol of the crowd that flooded the Capitol in an effort to reverse the election results for Trump. He served a 41-month prison term for obstructing a civil proceeding.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: With Trump targeted in riot probe, Arizona's role moves back in focus