Christian Smith
Arizona’s attorney general said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has received an indictment in the state’s fake voter case alongside 17 other defendants for his role in trying to overturn former President Donald Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 elections.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes posted the news about the Trump-aligned lawyer to his X account on Friday.
“The last defendant was summoned a moment ago. @RudyGiuliani no one is above the law,” Mayes wrote.
Attorney general spokesman Richie Taylor said in an email to The Associated Press on Saturday that Giuliani faces the same charges as the other defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
Giuliani’s political adviser, Ted Goodman, confirmed that Giuliani was seen Friday night, following his 80th birthday celebration, as he walked to his car.
“We expect full vindication soon,” Goodman said in a statement Saturday.
The indictment alleges that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona lawmakers and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to change the outcome of the Arizona election and that he was responsible for encouraging Republican voters in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.
Taylor said an unredacted copy of the indictment will be released Monday. He said Giuliani is expected to appear in court Tuesday unless the court grants him a postponement.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is among others charged in the case.
Neither Meadows nor Giuliani were named in the previously released redacted grand jury indictment because they had not been served but were easily identifiable based on descriptions in the document. The Arizona attorney general’s office said Wednesday that Meadows has been notified and confirmed that he has been charged with the same charges as the other named defendants, including charges of conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
With the charges, Arizona becomes the fourth state where allies of the former president have been accused of using false or unsubstantiated claims about election-related voter fraud.
Giuliani was also indicted last year by a grand jury in Georgia, where he is accused of leading Trump’s efforts to force state lawmakers in Georgia to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint pro-Trump Electoral College electors.
Among the defendants are 11 Arizona Republicans who filed a brief with Congress falsely declaring that Trump won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election — including a former state GOP chairman, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two state legislators in exercise. The other defendants are Mike Roman, who was Trump’s election day operations director, and four lawyers accused of organizing an attempt to use false documents to persuade Congress not to certify Biden’s victory: John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis.
Trump himself was not charged, but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The 11 people who were named Republican electors of Arizona met in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to sign a certificate affirming that they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump governed the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.
Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.
Eastman, who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election, became the first person accused in the Arizona fake voter case to be prosecuted on Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
Eastman made a brief statement outside the courtroom, saying the charges against him should never have been filed.
“I have had no communication with voters in Arizona (and) no involvement in any Arizona election litigation or legislative hearings. And I am confident that, with the laws faithfully applied, I will be fully exonerated at the end of this process,” Eastman said. He declined to comment further.
Arraignments are scheduled for May 21 for 12 other people charged in the case, including nine of the 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump had won Arizona.
The Arizona indictment said Eastman encouraged GOP voters to vote in December 2020, unsuccessfully lobbied state lawmakers to change the outcome of Arizona’s election and told then-Vice President Mike Pence he could reject voters Democrats in counting electoral votes in Congress. on January 6, 2021.
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Associated Press writers Jacques Billeaud and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.
