PHOENIX (AP) 鈥� Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine felony charges stemming from his role in an effort to overturn Donald Trump鈥檚 2020 election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden.
Giuliani appeared remotely for the arraignment that was held in a Phoenix courtroom.
His trial will be held in October.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP鈥檚 earlier story follows below.
PHOENIX (AP) 鈥� Former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Phoenix courtroom to nine felony charges stemming from her role in an effort to overturn Donald Trump鈥檚 2020 election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden.
Ward and at least 11 other people were arraigned Tuesday for charges. Her trial date is set for Oct. 17.
Former New York Mayor also is scheduled to be arraigned, though it鈥檚 unclear whether he鈥檒l seek a postponement. Arizona authorities tried unsuccessfully over several weeks to serve Giuliani notice of the indictment against him. Giuliani was Friday night as he was walking to a car after his 80th birthday celebration in Florida.
Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges last month against Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump, a Republican, had won Arizona. The defendants include five lawyers connected to the former president and two former Trump aides. Biden, a Democrat, by more than 10,000 votes.
The indictment alleges Ward, a former state senator who led the GOP in Arizona from 2019 until early 2023, organized the fake electors and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare them to be the state's true electors. It says Ward failed to withdraw her vote as a fake elector even though no legal challenges changed the outcome of the presidential race in Arizona.
Last week, attorney John Eastman, who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election, was the first defendant in the case to be arraigned, to the charges.
Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.
Arizona is 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.
The 11 people who claimed to be Arizona鈥檚 Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were 鈥渄uly elected and qualified鈥� electors and asserting that Trump carried the state. A of the signing 小蓝视频 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.
Of eight lawsuits that unsuccessfully challenged Biden鈥檚 victory in the state, one was filed by the 11 fake Arizona electors, who had asked a federal judge to decertify the results and block the state from sending its results to the Electoral College. In dismissing the case, the judge concluded the Republicans had 鈥渇ailed to provide the court with factual support for their extraordinary claims.鈥� Days after that lawsuit was dismissed, the 11 participated in the certificate signing.
Those set to be arraigned Tuesday are Ward; Tyler Bowyer, an executive of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA; state Sen. Anthony Kern; Greg Safsten, a former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party; Robert Montgomery, a former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee; Samuel Moorhead, a Republican precinct committee member in Gila County; Nancy Cottle, who in 2020 was the first vice president of the Arizona Federation of Republican Women; Loraine Pellegrino, past president of the Ahwatukee Republican Women; Michael Ward, an osteopathic physician who is married to Ward; attorneys Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb; and Michael Roman, who was Trump鈥檚 2020 director of Election Day operations.
Arraignments are scheduled for June 6 for state Sen. Jake Hoffman; on June 7 for former Trump chief of staff ; and on June 18 for Trump attorney Boris Epshteyn and for James Lamon, another Republican who claimed Trump carried the state.
The Associated Press
