As Trump election probe continues, if Georgia's fake electors get busted, so could Arizona's

Not long ago it was reported that eight Republican fake electors in Georgia had accepted immunity deals from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Supposedly, they’re cooperating with the criminal investigation being carried out by Willis’s office over Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state.

The scheme in Georgia – like the scheme in Arizona – involved creating a slate of phony electors to block the certification of the vote and hand over the election to Trump.

Willis isn’t messing around. Disenfranchising voters and trying to stage a coup doesn’t seem to sit well with her.

Georgia election case offers playbook for Arizona prosecutors

There’s talk of possible racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Real consequences for fake electors.

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Joe Biden is definitely going to prison! As soon as the GOP finds its missing informant.

Should that happen in Georgia it could, hopefully, provide a blueprint for authorities to follow in Arizona.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said she would be reaching out to federal officials concerning our state’s fake electors.

We know that special counsel Jack Smith is looking into them as part of his investigation.

Who's laughing about 'fake' votes now?

There was a grotesque smugness to the way Arizona’s fake electors tried to overturn an election.

You may recall the email sent to a Trump adviser from Arizona attorney Jack Wilenchik.

Former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her merry band of operatives were trying to overturn the will of Arizona voters when Wilenchik wrote to Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, “We (Arizona Republicans) would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted.”

Later, Wilenchik sent a follow-up email saying, “‘alternative’ votes is probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes,” followed by a smiley face emoji.

As it turns out, there might yet be a way to wipe the grin off that emoji's face.

EJ Montini is a news columnist at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, where this column first ran. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.