Look who wasn't indicted in Arizona's fake elector scheme

As we await news on which of Arizona’s now-indicted fake electors will flip on their fellow phonies and accused co-conspiracists, it’s worth taking a moment to consider who wasn’t charged with any criminal offenses in Wednesday’s blockbuster indictments:

Rep. Andy Biggs, the then-leader of the uber-conservative House Freedom Caucus, was one of Trump’s strongest acolytes on Capitol Hill and up to his eyeballs in efforts to overturn Arizona’s vote.

Both he and Rep. Paul Gosar attended a Dec. 21, 2020, White House planning session with Trump and his now-indicted chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to strategize how then-Vice President Mike Pence could block the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of the election results, according to the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In fact, the votes hadn’t even been fully counted in Arizona when Biggs started pushing the notion of setting aside electors in Arizona and elsewhere.

Biggs' fingerprints are all over this scheme

In a text message to Mark Meadows on Nov. 6, 2020, just three days after the election, Biggs suggested that state legislatures should appoint electors “in the various states where there’s been shenanigans,” a move he acknowledged would be “highly controversial.”

In his text, Biggs wrote the legislatures could appoint “a look doors,” which is phonetically similar to electors.

Fortunately, that suggestion was a non-starter with then-Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers.

It was, however, good enough for now-Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern and the rest of their now-fellow indictees to meet on Dec. 14, 2020, and sign papers certifying that they were “duly elected and qualified” to cast Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for Trump.

And it was good enough for 30 incoming and outgoing Republican state legislators who signed a document that same day, asking Pence and Congress to accept the 11 “alternate” electoral votes for Trump or “to have all electoral votes nullified completely until a full forensic audit can be conducted.”

Biggs pressed Bowers to sign the letter

Then-Rep. Mark Finchem — aka “unindicted co-conspirator 3” — would carry the document, inaccurately labeled “A Joint Resolution of the 54th Legislature” and affixed with state seal so it would look official, to Washington, D.C.

The day before the Jan. 6 rally-turned-riot, Biggs texted Finchem, asking for the letter — the one urging Congress to accept a Republican slate of presidential electors from Arizona, instead of the Democratic slate chosen by voters.

On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, Biggs video conferenced with Bowers, asking one final time if the then-House speaker would sign on to the letter and support decertifying Arizona’s electors, according to Bowers’ testimony to the Jan. 6 committee.

Fake elector whines: That he is actually a victim

Bowers wouldn’t.

Biggs and Gosar went ahead and tried to decertify our vote, anyway.

Biggs, Gosar tried to strip our vote, anyway

Literally as Trump’s supporters were storming the Capitol, Gosar was on the House floor spouting lies about Arizona’s election.

“Over 400,000 mail-in ballots were altered, switched from President Trump to Vice President Biden or completely erased from President Trump’s total,” Gosar told his colleagues, in remarks that had to be cut short because a mob of angry Trump supporters was, at that moment, breaking into the Capitol and Congress had to beat a hasty retreat.

The scheme ultimately failed as a shaken House and Senate reconvened later that evening, with the vast majority voting to accept Arizona’s election results.

This, despite the best efforts of Biggs and Gosar to strip us of our vote.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts or on Threads at @laurierobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Andy Biggs skates, despite his role in fake elector scheme