PHOENIX — Donald Trump’s former presidential chief of staff Marcos Prados and Trump 2020 Election Day operations director Michael Roman pleaded not guilty Friday in Phoenix to nine criminal charges for their roles in an effort to overturn Trump’s Arizona election loss to Joe Biden.
Meadows and Roman appeared via video conference for separate brief hearings before Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Shellie Smith, who set a trial date for Oct. 31.
Meadows and Roman spoke during the hearings only to answer Smith’s questions with their names and dates of birth. Their lawyers asked them to plead not guilty.
The indictment alleges that Meadows worked with other members of the Trump campaign submit to Congress the names of fake voters from Arizona and other states, in an attempt to keep Trump in office, despite his defeat at the polls in November 2020.
The document alleges that 11 Arizona Republicans filed documents falsely declaring that Trump won Arizona. It also says Meadows confided in a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election.
Roman is accused in the indictment of working closely with Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn and others to organize fake voter ballots in Arizona and six other states.
Outside court, Roman’s lawyer, Kurt Altman, vowed to fight the charges.
“Mike Roman has no connection to Arizona. Why this indictment came in the first place is beyond us,” Altman told reporters. “But let’s face reality and defend.”
Attorney Anne Chapman represented Meadows remotely during the hearing. She did not immediately return a phone call and email from The Associated Press seeking comment on her client’s behalf.
Giuliani, former mayor of New York, pleaded not guilty in May to nine criminal charges stemming from his role in the bogus voter effort. The Arizona indictment also includes criminal charges against Trump lawyers John Eastman, Christina Bobb and Jenna Ellis.
Epshteyn and James Lamon, another Republican who claimed Trump won Arizona, are scheduled to enter appeals on June 18.
Meadows and Roman have previously pleaded not guilty in Georgia state court to charges that they participated in an illegal scheme to attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Roman was charged in Wisconsin on Tuesday with forgery for allegedly delivering false election documents from that state to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer to take them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the results.
Other states where criminal charges have been filed related to the fake voter scheme are Michigan, Nevada It is Georgia.
