Two weeks ago, former San Diegan Christina Bobb was asked what her Arizona criminal charges would prevent her from doing as a lawyer.
“Well, nothing,” Bobb told fellow Floridian Patrick Bet-David on his conservative podcast. “I don’t think I’m going to be convicted.”
Her prosecutors might beg to differ.
As part of the deal she signed May 21 to be released on her own recognizance, the former One America News host and SDSU MBA agreed not to have any contact with any co-defendants in the fake electors case.
Those include Boris Epshteyn, a fellow Donald Trump lawyer who pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the Arizona election fraud case.
Thomas Jacobs, Bobb’s attorney, is taking a bullish stance on his client’s chances against nine felony charges including conspiracy, fraud and forgery. Asked whether he’s worried that any of Bobb’s co-defendants will cut plea deals and testify against her, Jacobs was succinct:
“Not at all,” he told Times of San Diego on Monday. “Ms. Bobb did nothing illegal.”
But a witness list released by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office on May 21 includes people who may give a dozen defendants pause.
Doug Ducey, the Republican former governor of Arizona, is on the list in the Bobb case. So are Cassidy Hutchinson — who gained fame during the January 6 hearings — and Kenneth Chesebro, the lawyer who helped craft the Trump campaign’s 2020 fake electors plot and who pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.
Attorney Jacobs appears unbothered by those names either.
“Nothing about what the defendants in this case did, or any planning that may have proceeded it, was illegal,” he said via email. “This was all conduct within the scope of legal electioneering.”
He said there are no facts harmful to Bobb, 41, who faces a potential life term in prison.
And although he’s still reviewing secret-to-the-public grand jury transcripts, Jacobs said: “At this time we are aware of no evidence that would induce any party to enter a plea of guilty.” In other words, flip.
Court records pertaining to Bobb show the grand jury met 19 times between Jan. 16 and April 23. That jury, made up of 12 to 16 Arizona citizens, handed up indictments against Bobb and others.
In Maricopa County court, Hutchinson also may testify against her former boss — Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. She told the Jan. 6 Select Committee that Meadows told her Trump knew he lost the election but wanted to keep fighting to overturn the results.
On April 24, commenting on Meadows, Hutchinson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said she would “comply fully with any cooperation that they ask of me.”
But back to the fake electors case.
On the PDB podcast, live streamed on YouTube, Bobb said: “In order to comply with the Electoral Count Act, the [Arizona] electors met to process their certification in the event that the challenge [via recounts and audits] was successful.”
She said Arizona Republicans had an “approved slate” of electors in compliance with the Electoral Count Act, “and the Arizona attorney general is saying that document is a forgery.”
Bobb’s attorney adds another wrinkle: Readers should look up the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy election challenge in Hawaii, which he said was a “precedent for this type of electioneering.”
In the Hawaii case, the election was so close that two slates of electors were eventually submitted to Congress. But during the joint session on January 6, 1961, Vice President Richard Nixon — as president of the Senate — sought and received unanimous consent for the Democratic certificate to be counted and the Republican certificate to be set aside.
The Congressional Record for Jan. 6, 1961, quoted Nixon as saying: “In order not to delay the further count of the electoral vote here, the chair, without the intent of establishing a precedent, suggests that the electors named in the certificate of the Governor of Hawaii dated January 4, 1961, be considered as the lawful electors from the State of Hawaii.”
In other words, Republican Nixon wanted only the Democratic electors counted — but didn’t want to establish a precedent.
Jacobs also revealed that Bobb — the Republican National Committee’s head of election integrity — won’t seek changes in her conditions of release.
“Ms. Bobb has been granted [own recognizance] status, with leave to travel,” he said. “There are no modifications required at this time.”
Next up for Bobb is a pretrial conference July 2 in Phoenix. Trial is set for 9 a.m. Oct. 17 on the fifth floor at South Court Tower, 175 W. Madison St. in Phoenix.
I noted that Bobb has spoken to some right-wing outlets — something that might be getting Donald Trump in trouble as he faces further court proceedings.
I asked Jacobs if he was advising Bobb on what she should or shouldn’t say in such appearances.
“Worried about any statements she’s made?” I wrote.
“No concerns,” he replied.
