May 21st 2024.
The news from Phoenix sent shockwaves through the country as it was announced that former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, had pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges. These charges were in relation to his involvement in the attempt to overturn Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election to Joe Biden in Arizona. Along with Giuliani, ten others, including former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, also pleaded not guilty to various charges such as conspiracy, forgery, and fraud.
Giuliani, who appeared remotely for the arraignment in a Phoenix courtroom, is scheduled to go to trial on October 17th, just three weeks before the U.S. election. The indictment against him alleged that he had spread false claims of election fraud in Arizona after the 2020 election and had even presided over a gathering in downtown Phoenix where he claimed that officials had made no effort to validate the accuracy of the presidential election results.
The former mayor was also accused of pressuring Maricopa County officials and state legislators to change the outcome of Arizona's results, as well as encouraging Republican electors in the state to vote for Trump in mid-December 2020. During his remote appearance, Giuliani had stated that he did not have an attorney and felt confident in handling the arraignment himself. He also mentioned that he had received a summons but had not been given a copy of the indictment. He reassured the court that he was familiar with the charges as he had read about them.
It was revealed that Arizona authorities had been trying unsuccessfully to serve Giuliani notice of the indictment for several weeks. Finally, on Friday night, as he was leaving his 80th birthday celebration in Florida, he was served. During the hearing, prosecutors requested a $10,000 cash bond, citing the difficulties they had faced in serving Giuliani. However, the judge instead required him to post a secured appearance bond of the same amount and to appear in Arizona within the next 30 days for booking procedures. Giuliani's spokesperson, Ted Goodman, stated that the former mayor looks forward to being vindicated and called the indictment a "complete embarrassment to the American legal system."
The case against Giuliani and the other defendants revolves around a document that was submitted to Congress falsely declaring that Trump had won Arizona, despite Biden's victory in the state by over 10,000 votes. The indictment alleges that Ward, who was the former state senator and chair of the GOP in Arizona, organized the fake electors and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare them as the state's true electors. It also states that she failed to withdraw her vote as a fake elector, despite no legal challenges changing the outcome of the presidential race in Arizona.
Last week, the first defendant in the case, attorney John Eastman, who had devised a strategy to try and persuade Congress not to certify the election, pleaded not guilty to the charges. Although Trump was not charged in this case, he was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator. This is the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Ten others, including Tyler Bowyer, an executive of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, and state senator Anthony Kern, also pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday. However, two other defendants, attorney Jenna Ellis and Michael Roman, who was Trump's 2020 director of Election Day operations, did not appear at the hearing. Their lawyers had requested a postponement, and it is unclear whether the judge had ruled on that request. Arraignments for other defendants are scheduled for June 6th, June 7th, and June 18th.
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