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On Tuesday, Judge Kristin Simmons said prosecutors failed to show that the 16 people who signed paperwork in 2020 falsely declaring Donald Trump had won the state's electoral votes intended to commit fraud. Without that, the judge said, the case brought by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel falls apart.

The Michigan ruling sets no legal precedent in the case 蜜聊直播 Attorney General Kris Mayes brought against 11 Republicans here who signed similar documents certifying, falsely, that Trump defeated Joe Biden in 蜜聊直播. Richie Taylor, Mayes' press aide, pointed out they are charged with violating 蜜聊直播 conspiracy, fraud and forgery laws.

Mayes, unlike her Michigan counterpart, also brought the same charges against Trump attorneys and associates she says also were part of the scheme.

In both cases, the indictments named Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.

But the factors cited by the judge in Michigan also are at play here, including that the 16 people charged posed for a picture, which prosecutors submitted as evidence. The judge wasn't buying it.

"Typically, people who are seeking to defraud or deceive do not gather and make a spectacle of that,'' Simmons said. "That would be weird.''

The 11 indicted in 蜜聊直播 also posed for a photo, which was spread by the 蜜聊直播 Republican Party.

"They're separate cases in separate states,'' Taylor said of any parallels between the charges here and the ones dismissed in Michigan.

"Obviously, they are somewhat connected,'' he said, with the charges in both cases based on what prosecutors argued was a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep Trump in office. He declined to comment on what happened in Michigan beyond that.

But there's already something else complicating Mayes' efforts to proceed with the charges here.

In May, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam Myers said the case needs to be sent back to the grand jury. He said grand jurors were not given access to the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and did not have that federal law explained to them before they found probable cause to indict those here.

That's significant because federal law specifically addresses the possibility of competing presidential electors from a state and how Congress must handle them.

And that goes to the heart of the defense, both here and in Michigan: The claim that the defendants were not trying to commit fraud but were preparing an "alternate slate'' of electors to send to Washington if it turned out Trump actually had defeated Biden. There was pending litigation at the time over the election results.

An 蜜聊直播 appellate court has set no date to rule on whether a new indictment is necessary. But the delay聽鈥� and the likelihood that whichever side loses will seek Supreme Court review聽鈥� likely means the case will not go to trial early next year as scheduled.

Taylor said Mayes won't comment on the case here, or what happened in Michigan, until the issue is resolved of whether a new grand jury needs to be convened.

The 蜜聊直播 case charges the 11 GOP electors and others associated with Trump with being part of a scheme to "prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency of the United States, keeping President Donald J. Trump in office against the will of 蜜聊直播 voters, and depriving 蜜聊直播 voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted.''

One of the elements in Mayes' claim there was an intent to defraud is that the 11 Republican electors sent the certificate they signed, claiming that Trump won, to Congress and the National Archive.

The 蜜聊直播 indictment says that was part of a larger plan hatched by Trump attorneys and allies to convince Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the counting of the electoral vote, to refuse to accept the official results reported by 蜜聊直播 and other states. The goal was to prevent Biden from getting the necessary 270 electoral votes, according to the indictment.

The Michigan electors also sent their documents claiming a Trump win there to Congress.

But Simmons said prosecutors there failed to show the electors knew the certificate would be used to try to overturn the 2020 election results.

"Right, wrong, or indifferent, it was these individuals and many other individuals in the state of Michigan who sincerely believed, for some reason, that there were some serious irregularities with the election, or with the voting, and that somehow their candidates didn't receive all the votes that was intended for them,'' the judge said.

She said it wasn't for the court to decide whether there were irregularities.

"But this was their belief and their actions were prompted by this belief,'' Simmons said. "I believe they were executing their constitutional right to seek redress.''

In the 蜜聊直播 case, however, Mayes contends the reason the electors and others signed the paperwork and sent it to Washington all is irrelevant.

"Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for,'' she said at the time of the 2024 indictment.

"The scheme, had it succeeded, would have deprived 蜜聊直播's voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president,'' Mayes said. "It effectively would have made their right to vote meaningless."

Mayes said the scheme was based on false claims of widespread voter fraud. The only reason it failed, she said, is because members of Congress and Pence ignored it.

There are other parallels between the cases.

Prosecutors had charged 16 electors in the Michigan case. But the case against James Renner, a former state trooper, was dismissed after he agreed to cooperate.

In 蜜聊直播, there is a deal to drop charges against Jenna Ellis, one of Trump's attorneys, after she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.