Arizona’s lawyer normal says former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been served an indictment within the state’s pretend elector case, alongside 17 different defendants, for his position in an try to overturn former president Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden within the 2020 election.
Arizona Legal professional Basic Kris Mayes posted the information concerning the Trump-aligned lawyer on social media late Friday.
“The ultimate defendant was served moments in the past. @RudyGiuliani no person is above the regulation,” Mayes wrote on X, previously Twitter.
The lawyer normal’s spokesperson, Richie Taylor, stated in an e mail to The Related Press on Saturday that Giuliani faces the identical expenses as the opposite defendants, together with conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
His political adviser, Ted Goodman, confirmed Giuliani was served Friday evening after his eightieth birthday celebration as he was strolling to the automobile.
“We sit up for full vindication quickly,” Goodman stated in an announcement on Saturday.
Giuliani ‘pressured’ legislators, indictment alleges
The indictment alleges that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona legislators and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to vary the result of Arizona’s election and that he was answerable for encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and 6 different contested states to vote for Trump.
Taylor stated an unredacted copy of the indictment can be launched Monday and that Giuliani is predicted to seem in court docket Tuesday except he’s granted a delay by the court docket.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of workers, is among the many others who’ve been indicted within the case.
Neither Meadows nor Giuliani had been named within the redacted grand jury indictment launched earlier as a result of they’d not been served with it, however they had been readily identifiable based mostly on descriptions within the doc. The Arizona lawyer normal’s workplace stated Wednesday that Meadows had been served and confirmed that he was charged with the identical counts as the opposite named defendants, together with conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
With the indictments, Arizona turns into the fourth state the place allies of the previous president have been charged with utilizing false or unproven claims about voter fraud associated to the election.
Giuliani was additionally indicted final yr by a grand jury in Georgia, the place he’s accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers there to disregard the desire of voters and illegally appoint pro-Trump electoral faculty electors.
Among the many 16 different defendants are 11 Arizona Republicans who submitted a doc to the U.S. Congress falsely declaring that Trump gained in Arizona within the 2020 presidential election — together with a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers.
The opposite defendants are Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of election day operations, and 4 legal professionals accused of organizing an try to make use of pretend paperwork to steer Congress to not certify Biden’s victory: John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis.
Trump himself was not charged however was known as an unindicted co-conspirator.