PHOENIX — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine charges stemming from his role in an effort to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden.
Ten others, including former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, also pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, forgery and fraud in connection with the case. Giuliani appeared remotely for the arraignment, which took place in a Phoenix courtroom. The trials against him and Ward are scheduled for October 17, about three weeks before the US elections.
The indictment alleged that after the 2020 election, Giuliani spread false claims of election fraud in Arizona and chaired a rally in downtown Phoenix where he claimed officials had made no effort to determine the accuracy of the presidential election results to set.
It also accused him of pressuring Maricopa County officials and state lawmakers to change the outcome of Arizona’s results and encourage Republican voters in the state to vote for Trump in mid-December 2020.
During his remote appearance, Giuliani said he did not have an attorney and felt capable of handling the arraignment himself.
Giuliani said he had received a subpoena but did not have a copy of the indictment. However, he said he is familiar with the allegations because he has read about them.
Arizona authorities tried unsuccessfully for several weeks to notify Giuliani of the charges against him. He was finally caught Friday evening as he walked to a car after his 80th birthday in Florida.
On Tuesday, prosecutors requested a $10,000 bond after detailing the efforts of Arizona authorities since April 23 and the difficulties they have faced. The judge instead required Giuliani to post $10,000 bail and appear in Arizona for booking procedures within the next 30 days. A cash bail would have meant Giuliani would have had to pay the court $10,000, while at a secured appearance he could instead offer a $10,000 bond to cover the bail. “He has shown no intent to comply with the legal process in Arizona,” prosecutor Nicholas Klingerman said in asking for the bond.
Investigators were not allowed to go to Giuliani’s New York home, a doorman at the building refused to accept the documents and voicemails left for Giuliani were not returned, Klingerman said.
The prosecutor said that before the notice was issued, Giuliani mentioned the Arizona case on a podcast and told listeners he thought it was hilarious that Arizona investigators were having trouble finding him. “This is perfect proof that if they are so incompetent that they can’t find me, they can’t count the votes correctly,” he said, according to Klingerman.
Giuliani responded that he had not hidden from Arizona authorities and said he has strict rules about who can walk to his home as he has been the target of death threats and has no security staff. He also called the charges political.
“I view the indictment as a complete disgrace to the American justice system,” Giuliani said. Moments later, court commissioner Shellie Smith, who was presiding over the hearing, tried to interrupt Giuliani, but he kept talking.
After Tuesday’s indictment, Giuliani spokesman Ted Goodman said the former New York mayor looks forward to being vindicated.
“These charges are essentially a cut-and-paste version of what they are trying to use to disrupt the 2024 election and take down President Trump and anyone willing to take on the permanent political class in Washington,” said Goodman.
Authorities in Arizona last month unveiled felony charges against Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump, a Republican, had won Arizona. The suspects include five lawyers with ties to the former president and two former Trump aides. Biden, a Democrat, won 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 the fake voters and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to turn them into the real ones voters of the state. It says Ward failed to rescind her vote as a fake voter, even though no legal challenges changed the outcome of Arizona’s presidential race.
Last week, attorney John Eastman, who devised a strategy to convince Congress not to certify the election, became the first defendant in the case to be indicted and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case, but was named an unindicted co-conspirator.
Arizona is the fourth state where allies of the former president have been accused of using false or unproven claims of voter fraud in connection with the election.
The 11 people claiming to be Arizona’s Republican electors gathered in Phoenix on December 14, 2020, to sign a certificate stating they were “duly chosen and qualified” electors and claiming Trump carried the state . A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Republican Party of Arizona at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.
The other people who pleaded not guilty Tuesday included Tyler Bowyer, a director of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA; state Senator Anthony Kern; Greg Safsten, former executive director of the Republican Party of Arizona; Robert Montgomery, a former chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee; Samuel Moorhead, a member of the Republican precinct committee in Gila County; Nancy Cottle, who served as first vice president of the Arizona Federation of Republican Women in 2020; Loraine Pellegrino, former chairwoman of the Ahwatukee Republican Women; Michael Ward, an osteopathic physician married to Ward; and attorney Christina Bobb.
Two other defendants — attorney Jenna Ellis and Michael Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020 — were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday but ultimately did not appear at the hearing. Their lawyers had asked for a postponement. The official report does not show whether the judge decided on that request.
Indictments are scheduled for June 6 against Senator Jake Hoffman; on June 7 for former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows; and on June 18 for Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn and for James Lamon, another Republican who claimed Trump was carrying the state.