Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sam J. Myers ruled on Monday that the false elector case involving some of President Donald Trump's then-allies had to be sent back to a grand jury.

Myers agreed with Republican arguments that the Electoral Count Act, a law explaining how to tally presidential electoral votes that is at the heart of their defense, should have been given to previous grand jurors as part of their deliberations.

“A prosecutor has a duty to instruct the grand jury on all the law applicable to the facts of the case,” Myers wrote in his order.

While not a dismissal, the ruling does set the case back significantly in its efforts to prosecute Trump's allies for allegedly trying to keep him in power after the 2020 election.

Appeal pending

The case had more than a dozen defendants, including former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn.

The false electors at the heart of the case allegedly signed a statement that Trump had won the state of Arizona after the election, even though election results showed he did not.

At the time, rumors of widespread fraud swirled around the state, which may have muddied the waters and influenced the electors to do what they did.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) said through a spokesperson that she "vehemently" disagrees with Myers and plans to appeal the ruling.

Mayes refused to drop the case after Trump was elected in 2024 and said she would not be "intimidated" into doing so.

Other cases

Arizona is not the only state pursuing criminal charges against false electors.

Cases against false electors and those who allegedly instigated them are also pending in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada.

While Democrats have wanted to come down like a ton of bricks on these electors, it's not difficult to remember the political atmosphere right after the 2020 election and understand that there was real sentiment among the majority of Republicans that the election had been stolen from Trump.

It wasn't easy at the time to sort out which reports of fraud were real and which were not or to determine whether the election had really been fair.

Looking back, it's clear that no proof of widespread ballot fraud was ever produced, but there is certainly plenty of evidence that the election was skewed against Trump in a lot of ways that probably would have led to a different result.