Former Arizona lawmaker and Charlie Kirk ally pleads guilty to election fraud charges

[Thiệu Ngô]

Austin Smith aided TPUSA’s election-denial efforts after the 2020 election. He pleaded guilty Monday to forging signatures on his own reelection petition.

By Ja'han Jones

Austin Smith — a former Arizona state legislator and Turning Point USA official who spread false claims of election fraud around the 2020 election — pleaded guilty on Monday to election fraud charges.

Smith led the so-called Arizona Freedom Caucus in the state legislature while serving as the “enterprise director” for Turning Point Action, a nonprofit branch of Turning Point USA that helped to fuel false claims of election-rigging against Republicans.

Smith pleaded guilty to “attempted fraudulent schemes and practices” and “illegal signing of election petitions” after he was found to have forged signatures on his reelection petition. In a now-deleted tweet, he previously called the allegations “ludicrous” and claimed they were part of a “coordinated attack” against him by Democrats.

“Forging signatures, including those of people who have died, in order to get yourself on the ballot is illegal, and it erodes trust in our elections,” said Attorney General Kris Mayes in a statement announcing the conviction. “My office will continue to hold accountable anyone who tries to cheat the system and mislead Arizona voters.”

The New York Times in 2022 described Smith as Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s “lieutenant” and a key player in “The Arizona Republican Party’s Anti-Democracy Experiment” — that is, the state party’s shift toward an idea that “democracy itself was at fault [for Trump’s defeat] and had been weaponized by the political left” — that followed Trump’s failed effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The Arizona Mirror reports that Smith may still be working with Turning Point USA, despite the announcement of his resignation from Turning Point Action last year (Smith and Turning Point did not respond to the Mirror’s request for comment). Smith’s plea agreement may allow him to avoid a felony record, per the Mirror:

Smith pleaded guilty to the reduced charges as part of a plea agreement that gives him the possibility of avoiding a felony conviction. In Arizona law, when a person without a criminal history is found guilty of a low-level felony, the judge can wait until that person’s probation is finished before designating the crime a felony or misdemeanor. Essentially, that means if Smith completes any probation he’s sentenced to without violations, his conviction could be classified a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

Monday’s conviction means a prominent leader of a right-wing organization known for spreading election fraud conspiracy theories was himself responsible for actual election fraud