Journalists’ Roundtable: Fake electors case, Grijalva win and more

It’s Friday, which means it is time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Howie Fischer of “Capitol Media Services,” Jessica Boehm of “AXIOS,” and Mark Brodie of “KJZZ.”

Top stories this week include

• Fake Electors Indictment
• Grijalva Wins Congressional Race
• State Agency Budget Requests
• Axon Lawsuit
• Jimmy McCain Appointment to ABOR
• HOV Lane for EVs Ends Soon

Fake Electors Indictment:

Howie Fischer: “There is a 1887 law…to say there is a way for Congress to deal with competing state electors, and Mayes and her attorneys never presented that to the grand jurors. What the trial judge said…they needed to be presented with that and otherwise your indictment can’t stand. That goes, again to their theory that, we’re not fake electors, we’re just alternate electors.”

Jessica Boehm: “It now puts the attorney general in a difficult position, politically especially. She has to decide, am I gonna go back and retry this case with a new grand jury…also has the option to say, ‘oh let’s forget about it.’ I don’t think that’s gonna happen, and that would certainly aggravate her base. But those are her options at this point.”

Grijalva Wins Congressional Race:

Jessica Boehm: “…she is a key vote on something that is of interest nationally…the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. She would be that magic number vote to release them…now there’s a question of how soon can she be sworn in, and if that could kind of delay the ability to release those files.”

Mark Brodie: “He (Speaker Mike Johnson) hasn’t really said that he’s going to go quickly or not, I mean he’s got a few other things going on right now…so i’ve not personally heard anything about when that might be. But Jessica’s right, that her vote…A, narrows the gap between Democrats and Republicans, but also she has said that she would sign that discharge position to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files.”