Rudy Giuliani denied accusations of illegally trying to keep Donald Trump in power following his defeat in the 2020 election, when he was arraigned to appear before a court in Arizona along with 10 other defendants on Tuesday.
Giuliani’s plea of not guilty to nine criminal charges came days after he was charged as he left a party to celebrate his 80th birthday last Friday.
Giuliani was the last of the 12 defendants to receive a subpoena for Tuesday’s hearing, after the Arizona attorney general’s office said he evaded efforts to notify him for several days.
Related: Rudy Giuliani complains Arizona indictment wasn’t presented ‘with style’
Reflecting the difficulties in locating him, the attorney general’s office requested a $10,000 cash bond for Giuliani, citing problems it had in presenting him with an indictment and a general lack of cooperation, according to reports. No similar requests were made to other defendants.
The Attorney General’s Office is requesting a $10,000 cash bond for Giuliani due to the difficulties they had in notifying him of his indictment and his lack of cooperation. They did not seek bail for any of the other defendants.
-Jeremy Duda (@jeremyduda) May 21, 2024
Others charged for their roles as fake voters include two sitting legislators, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. Former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, were charged, as were Tyler Bowyer, a Republican national committeeman and Turning Point USA executive, and Jim Lamon, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2022.
The others charged in the fake voter scheme are Nancy Cottle, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten.
Additional defendants are expected to be indicted next month, including Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Trump himself is listed as “unindicted co-conspirator 1” in the case but has not been charged.
Before being charged, Giuliani, the former New York mayor and legal spearhead of Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, insulted Arizona officials by posting a photo of himself on X, defying them. them to drop the case.
“If Arizona authorities cannot find me by tomorrow morning: 1. They should dismiss the charge; 2. They must admit they cannot count votes,” he captioned the post, which has since been deleted.
After receiving the indictment, Giuliani posted on Facebook that he didn’t know Arizona authorities were looking for him until “someone told me there was a news story saying they were having trouble finding me.”
The indictment alleged that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona lawmakers and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to change the election results in the state, which Joe Biden won by more than 10,000 votes.
He is also accused of urging Republican voters in Arizona to vote for Trump in the face of popular vote counts showing a Biden victory.
According to testimony from Rusty Bowers, former speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Giuliani, in his efforts to persuade the state legislature to overturn the 2020 vote, told him and lawmakers that “we don’t have the evidence, but We have many theories.”
The case is the latest in a series of legal troubles plaguing Giuliani — a former federal prosecutor who was once known for fighting mob organized crime bosses — over his attempts to help Trump overturn the 2020 election.
He filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay $148 million in compensation to two election officials in Georgia after they successfully sued for defamation.
