Rudy Giuliani and 10 others plead not guilty to charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Arizona
CNN
By Holmes Lybrand, Kyung Lah and Jack Hannah, CNN
Phoenix (CNN) — Rudy Giuliani and 10 others pleaded not guilty in an Arizona court Tuesday to charges of allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The former New York mayor was also ordered to post a $10,000 bond after he ducked efforts by the state to serve him with a summons over the past week.
Giuliani was served Friday in Palm Beach, Florida, at his 80th birthday bash held by a GOP operative. Arizona prosecutors spent weeks trying to track down Giuliani and eventually found him based on some of his podcasts.
A grand jury in Arizona handed up indictments last month charging over a dozen Donald Trump allies for their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, including the fake electors and several individuals connected to his campaign.
Giuliani was joined by 10 other defendants entering their not-guilty pleas Tuesday. Four of those appeared virtually and six in person. The list includes: Christina Bobb, a Trump ally who now serves as the Republican National Committee’s top lawyer for “election integrity”; former Trump campaign aide Mike Roman; and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward.
Ex-Trump lawyer John Eastman pleaded not guilty last week.
Six others, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis are scheduled to appear next month.
While Trump is not among those charged in Arizona, the details in the indictment suggest he is “Unindicted Coconspirator 1.”
Giuliani spars with prosecutors
In asking for a $10,000 cash bond along with the requirement that Giuliani appear in Arizona within a month to be processed, prosecutor Nicholas Klingerman told the judge that Giuliani “has failed to reach out or be cooperative in this process.”
“We actually had two agents in Florida, at the time, who were sitting outside the party waiting to see if he would leave” in order to serve him, Klingerman said of Giuliani’s birthday party.
That evening, Giuliani posted a tweet saying that “if Arizona authorities can’t find me by tomorrow morning” they would have to dismiss the indictment. An hour after the post, Klingerman said, agents saw him leave the party and served him.
“I haven’t been hiding from anyone,” Giuliani told the judge during Tuesday’s hearing.
“I have a fair number of threats … and I don’t have security any longer since I’ve been in bankruptcy. So I have very specific rules,” Giuliani said, explaining why agents were unable to serve him at this New York apartment.
Giuliani claimed there had been attempted hits on him in France and the Netherlands and said a cash bond “would be totally punitive.”
“I do consider this indictment a complete embarrassment to the American legal system. But I’ve shown no tendency not to comply,” Giuliani said, adding that he has been sued many times “by a very similar movement to this one, which is the ‘let’s see what we can do to destroy Donald Trump’ movement.”
Giuliani told the judge he didn’t have counsel, claiming that he could handle the arraignment himself “except for the fact that I don’t have a copy of the indictment,” and offered to give his email address before the judge reminded him that he was appearing in open court.
“Oh,” Giuliani said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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