PHOENIX (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine felonies stemming from his role in the effort to overturn Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in Arizona’s 2020 election.
Giuliani appeared remotely at his arraignment in a Phoenix courtroom. His trial is scheduled for October.
Former Arizona Republican Party Chairman Kelly Ward and at least 11 others were also indicted on Tuesday. conspiracy, forgery, fraud He will be arraigned in a Phoenix court. She and nine others have so far maintained her innocence. Her trial date has been set for October 17, about three weeks before the US presidential election.
Giuliani said during a remote appearance that he does not currently have a lawyer, but plans to hire one. When asked by the court if he needed an appointed attorney for his arraignment, Mr. Giuliani replied, “No, no, I think I can handle it myself.”
Giuliani said he received the subpoena but did not have a copy of the indictment. However, he said he was familiar with the charges from reading the book.
Arizona authorities have tried unsuccessfully for weeks to serve notice of the indictment on Mr. Giuliani.Giuliani is finally provided I was walking to my car Friday night after celebrating my 80th birthday in Florida.
On Tuesday, in response to prosecutors’ request for $10,000 cash bail, Giuliani said, after explaining that it would be difficult for Giuliani to serve time in the case. .So I have very strict rules about who gets up and who doesn’t. ”
The judge asked Giuliani to post a $10,000 secured appearance bond and to appear in Arizona for booking within the next 30 days.
Last month, Arizona authorities unveiled felony charges against a Republican who submitted a false statement to Congress stating that Republican President Donald Trump had won the state. The defendants include five lawyers with ties to the former president and two former Trump aides. Democrat Biden, won against arizona By more than 10,000 votes.
The indictment alleges that Ward, a former state senator who led Arizona’s Republican Party from 2019 to early 2023, organized fake electors and convinced then-Vice President Mike Pence to identify them as the state’s true electors. He claims that he encouraged the government to declare that The newspaper said that even though the legal challenge had no effect on the outcome of Arizona’s presidential election, Ward was unable to withdraw his vote as a sham.
Last week, attorney John Eastman, who developed a strategy to persuade Congress not to certify the election, became the first defendant in the case to be arraigned. Plead innocence To the crime.
Trump himself was not indicted in the Arizona case, but was mentioned as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Arizona is the fourth state in which an ally of the former president has been indicted for making false or unproven claims of voter fraud related to the election.
Eleven people identifying themselves as Arizona’s Republican electors gathered in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to claim they are “duly elected and qualified” electors and that Trump is in charge of the state. Signed the certificate.a 1 minute video The signing ceremony was posted to social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time, and documents were later sent to Congress and the National Archives, but were ignored.
Of the eight unsuccessful lawsuits challenging Mr. It had asked a federal judge to block it from sending the results to the US. In dismissing the lawsuit, the justices concluded that Republicans “failed to provide the court with factual support for their extraordinary claims.” A few days after the case was dismissed, 11 people participated in signing the certificate.
Ward is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday. Tyler Bowyer, executive director of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA. State Sen. Anthony Kern. Greg Safsten, former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party; Robert Montgomery, former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee; Samuel Moorehead, Gila County Republican precinct commissioner; Nancy Cottle served as first vice president of the Arizona Republican Women’s Federation in 2020. Lorraine Pellegrino, former chair of the Ahwatukee Republican Women; Michael Ward, an osteopathic doctor who is married to Ward. attorneys Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb; and Michael Roman, who was President Trump’s 2020 election day operations manager.
State Sen. Jake Hoffman’s arraignment is scheduled for June 6th. On June 7, he became former President Trump’s chief of staff. mark meadows; and on June 18, the same was true for Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn and James Lamon, another Republican who claims Trump has taken the country into his hands.
