Arizona indicts Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and a slew of others for trying to overturn 2020 election

[jserraglio]

Arizona Charges Giuliani and Other Trump Allies in Election Interference Case

Those charged included Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, and the fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf in Arizona after the 2020 election.

The New York Times
By Danny Hakim
Danny Hakim covers state elections cases involving the Trump campaign.

April 24, 2024, 7:47 p.m. ET

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and a number of others who advised Donald J. Trump during the 2020 election were indicted in Arizona on Wednesday, along with all of the fake electors who acted on Mr. Trump’s behalf there to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state.

Arizona is the fourth swing state to bring an elections case involving the activities of the Trump campaign in 2020, but only the second after Georgia to go beyond the fake electors whom the campaign deployed in swing states lost by Mr. Trump. The former president was also named an unindicted co-conspirator.

“I understand for some of you today didn’t come fast enough, and I know I’ll be criticized by others for conducting this investigation at all,” Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, said in a recorded statement. “But as I have stated before and will say here again today, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined. It’s too important.”

Mr. Giuliani is Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer; Mr. Meadows was the White House chief of staff at the time of the 2020 election. They were among a number of defendants whose names were redacted from the indictment, though it was clear from the context and the descriptions who they were.

Also indicted were Boris Epshteyn, who remains one of Mr. Trump’s most senior lawyers; Mike Roman, a Trump campaign operative in 2020, and John Eastman, an architect of the fake electors plan. Two other lawyers who advised Mr. Trump and his 2020 campaign were also indicted, Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb.

[barney]

Good. Obviously it will be too late, too slow, to influence any voters though. And if Trump wins they can all expect pardons.

[jserraglio]

Good. Obviously it will be too late, too slow, to influence any voters though. And if Trump wins they can all expect pardons.

President Trump can’t pardon patriots that commit state offenses—only those convicted of federal felonies. He’d have to get the Arizona governor to do it: as of 2023, maddeningly, she happens to be a Democrat, Katie Hobbs.

What though the field be lost? All is not lost.

President Trump should still be able to call out the National Guard, declare martial law, and appoint Dame Kari Lake as Acting Arizona Governor, if and when his SCOTUS appointees, as expected, rule that the POTUS in his official acts as President is not subject to penalty of law.