Rudy Giuliani Served Indictment in Arizona Electors Case

Rudy Giuliani speaks to members of the media in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 21, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Arizona officials have served former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani with a notice of his indictment related to an alleged “fake electors” scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Mr. Giuliani is among 18 individuals indicted in Arizona’s ongoing investigation into an alleged scheme to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, although his name remains redacted in the indictment that charged them with various crimes, including fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.

Prosecutors had unsuccessfully tried for weeks to serve Mr. Giuliani with the indictment notice before finally catching up with the former mayor at his 80th birthday bash in Florida, according to Ms. Mayes.

“The final defendant was served moments ago,” the Arizona AG wrote in a post on X. “Nobody is above the law.”

Ms. Mayes shared a screengrab of a since-deleted May 17 post from Mr. Giuliani taunting officials, stating that if they couldn’t find him by “tomorrow morning,” “they must dismiss the indictment” and “they must concede they can’t count votes.”

Mr. Giuliani livestreamed footage from his 80th birthday bash on social media, in which he reiterated his conviction that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against former President Donald Trump.

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While no further details as to the circumstances under which he was served the notice were immediately available, sources told the New York Post that two officials from Ms. Meyes’s office arrived at the party at about 11 p.m. and handed the papers to the former Trump attorney.

“While crime in Arizona is at an all-time high, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office felt it was a good use of resources to send multiple agents across the country to storm an 80th birthday party like it was Normandy,” Caroline Wren, a Republican consultant who hosted Mr. Giuliani’s birthday party at her home, told The Post.

Mr. Giuliani’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the development by press time.

Mr. Giuliani was the final individual to be served with an indictment in the case, in which 18 people have been charged with multiple felony counts.

Arizona is the fourth state where Trump-aligned electors (variously referred to as “alternate,” “dueling,” or “fake”) have been criminally charged, with cases ongoing in Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada.

What’s the Case About?

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, which President Trump claimed was marred by fraud, slates of Republican electors in a number of states signed what they described as “alternate” or “dueling” electoral certificates for the 45th president.

At the time, they faced criticism for allegedly usurping the authority of the Democrat electors who were authorized by state election officials to submit electoral certificates based on the official election results.

However, the Republican electors argued that their decision to submit alternate certificates was to preserve President Trump’s legal claim for the election as legal challenges to the results made their way through the courts.

In the Arizona case, a total of 18 Republicans have been charged with conspiracy, fraud, and forgery for submitting an electoral certificate to Congress declaring that President Trump beat then-candidate Joe Biden in Arizona’s popular vote during the 2020 presidential election.

Official records indicate that President Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.

“In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as President on November 3, 2020,” the indictment reads.

“Unwilling to accept this fact, Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters. This scheme would have deprived Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted.”

While the indictment doesn’t specifically name President Trump, it’s clear from the context that “Unindicted Coconspirator 1” is a reference to him.

When the results of the November 2020 election were ultimately certified, the 11 individuals nominated as Arizona’s Republican electors convened in Phoenix, where they signed a certificate during a ceremony on Dec. 14, 2020, asserting themselves as “duly elected and qualified” electors while proclaiming that President Trump had won the state.

The document that they signed was sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was not accepted as legitimate.

‘Fake Electoral Scheme’

The 11 people identified in the indictment as alleged “fake electors” from Arizona—Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, Jake Hoffman, Anthony Kern, Jim Lamon, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Loraine Pellegrino, Greg Safsten, Kelli Ward, and Michael Ward—face nine felony counts each. These charges encompass conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, artifices, and forgery.

When her office released the indictment at the end of April, Ms. Mayes said that the “fake electoral scheme” was concocted to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency and to “undermine the will of Arizona’s voters” in the 2020 election.

Arizona Republicans released a statement denouncing the charges as “suspiciously convenient and politically motivated” given their timing ahead of the 2024 presidential election, calling it “not justice” but “pure election interference.”

Aside from ongoing criminal cases against the “alternate” or “fake” Republican electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada, a civil lawsuit over the same issue was settled in Wisconsin in December 2023; it required the 10 Republicans who presented themselves as contingent electors to send statements to government offices saying that their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”