Giuliani Final Defendant Served in AZ  05/20 06:14

   

   (AP) -- Arizona's attorney general says former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani 
has been served an indictment in the state's fake elector case alongside 17 
other defendants for his role in an attempt to overturn former President Donald 
Trump's loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

   Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes posted the news regarding the 
Trump-aligned lawyer on her X account late Friday.

   "The final defendant was served moments ago. @RudyGiuliani nobody is above 
the law," Mayes wrote.

   The attorney general's 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 charges.

   Giuliani's political adviser, Ted Goodman, confirmed Giuliani was served 
Friday night after his 80th birthday celebration as he was walking to the car.

   "We look forward to full vindication soon," Goodman said in a statement 
Saturday.

   The indictment alleges 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 encouraging Republican electors 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 he is granted a 
delay by the court.

   Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, is among others who have been 
indicted in the case.

   Neither Meadows nor Giuliani were named in the redacted grand jury 
indictment released earlier because they had not been served with it, but they 
were readily identifiable based on descriptions in the document. The Arizona 
attorney general's office said Wednesday, May 1, that Meadows had been served 
and confirmed that he was charged with the same counts as the other named 
defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

   With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where allies of the 
former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims about 
voter fraud related to the election.

   Giuliani faces other legal proceedings, and a bankruptcy judge this past 
week said he was "disturbed" about the status of the case and for missed 
deadlines to file financial disclosure reports. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy 
after being ordered to pay $148 million to two former election workers for 
spreading a false conspiracy theory about their role in the 2020 election.

   Giuliani was also indicted last year by a grand jury in Georgia, where he is 
accused of spearheading Trump's efforts to compel 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 submitted a document to 
Congress falsely declaring that Trump won in Arizona in the 2020 presidential 
election -- including a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate 
and two sitting state lawmakers. The other defendants are Mike Roman, who was 
Trump's director of Election Day operations, and four attorneys accused of 
organizing an attempt to use fake 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 had been nominated to be Arizona's Republican electors met 
in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were "duly 
elected and qualified" electors and claiming that Trump carried 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 charged in Arizona's fake elector case to 
be arraigned on Friday. He pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and forgery 
charges.

   Eastman made a brief statement outside the courthouse, saying the charges 
against him should have never been filed.

   "I had zero communications with the electors in Arizona (and) zero 
involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative 
hearings. And I am confident that with the laws faithfully applied, I will be 
fully be exonerated at the end of this process," Eastman said. He declined to 
make further comment.

   Arraignments are scheduled May 21 for 12 other people charged in the case, 
including nine of the 11 Republicans who had submitted a document to Congress 
falsely declaring Trump had won Arizona.

   The Arizona indictment said Eastman encouraged the GOP electors to cast 
their votes in December 2020, unsuccessfully pressured state lawmakers to 
change the election's outcome in Arizona and told then-Vice President Mike 
Pence that he could reject Democratic electors in the counting of electoral 
votes in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.