Rudy Giuliani Indicted for Attempting to Overturn 2020 Election Results!
Arizona’s attorney general has announced that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, along with 17 other defendants, has been indicted in the state’s phony elector case for his role in an attempt to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 elections.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes shared the news about the Trump-aligned lawyer on her X account late Friday. “The final defendant was served just seconds ago. “@RudyGiuliani, no one is above the law,” Mayes wrote.
In an email to The Associated Press on Saturday, Attorney General spokesman Richie Taylor said Giuliani faces the same allegations as the other defendants, including conspiracy, fraud, and forgery.
Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s political adviser, confirmed that Giuliani was served Friday night as he walked to his car following his 80th birthday celebration.
“We look forward to receiving full vindication soon,” Goodman said in a statement on Saturday.
The indictment claims that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona legislators and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to change the outcome of Arizona’s election and that he was responsible for urging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.
Taylor said an unredacted copy of the indictment would be released on Monday. He said Giuliani is likely to appear in court on Tuesday unless the judge grants him a delay.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is among those indicted in the case.
Meadows and Giuliani were not named in the redacted grand jury indictment released earlier because they had not been served with it, but they were easily identified based on details in the document. Meadows was served, according to the Arizona attorney general’s office, on Wednesday, May 1. He was charged with the same crimes as the other identified defendants, including conspiracy, fraud, and forgery.
With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where the former president’s aides have been charged with making false or unfounded claims about voter fraud in the election.
Giuliani is facing additional legal actions, and a bankruptcy judge stated this week that he was “disturbed” by the case’s condition and missed deadlines for filing financial disclosure reports. Giuliani declared bankruptcy after being sentenced to pay $148 million to two former election workers who circulated a fake conspiracy theory about their involvement in the 2020 election.
A Georgia grand jury charged Giuliani last year, accusing him of orchestrating Trump’s efforts to coerce state lawmakers to violate voter will and fraudulently appoint pro-Trump electoral college electors.
Among the defendants are 11 Arizona Republicans who sent a paper to Congress falsely claiming that Trump won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election, including a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate, and two sitting state senators. Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations, and four attorneys accused of coordinating a plan to use fraudulent documents to persuade Congress not to acknowledge Biden’s victory: John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn, and Jenna Ellis, are also charged.
Trump was not charged but was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator.
On December 14, 2020, the 11 Republican electors nominated for Arizona met in Phoenix to sign a certificate stating that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and that Trump carried the state. The Arizona Republican Party shared a one-minute video of the signing ceremony on social media at the time. The document was then given to Congress and the National Archives but was disregarded.
Biden won Arizona by over 10,000 votes.
On Friday, Eastman, who planned a scheme to urge Congress not to recognize the election, became the first person charged in Arizona’s false elector case to appear in court. He pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud, and forgery.
Eastman issued a brief statement outside the courthouse, claiming that the allegations against him should never have been filed.
“I had no communication with Arizona voters and no role in any of the state’s election litigation or legislative proceedings. And I am convinced that if the laws are rigorously followed, I will be entirely exonerated at the end of this process,” Eastman stated. He declined to make any additional comments.
Arraignments for 12 other defendants charged in the case are expected for May 21, including nine of the 11 Republicans who sent a document to Congress falsely claiming Trump won Arizona.
According to the Arizona indictment, Eastman encouraged GOP electors to vote in December 2020, unsuccessfully lobbied state lawmakers to change the election outcome in Arizona, and told then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could reject Democratic electors in the congressional electoral vote count on January 6, 2021.