Main image: Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani talks to reporters as he leaves after his defamation trial in Washington, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File); Inset top right: Social media post from Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (X); Since-deleted social media post from Giuliani (X)
Rudy Giuliani, 79, was served an indictment by Arizona authorities late Friday evening over his alleged role in a so-called alternate or “fake electors” plot to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The criminal charges against the former New York City mayor were delivered in dramatic fashion – with the drama spilling over into a back-and-forth series of legal jabs served on social media.
Giuliani first boasted about evading the legal process in a post on X (formerly Twitter) at 10:06 p.m. EST reading: “If Arizona authorities can’t find me by tomorrow morning: 1. They must dismiss the indictment; 2. They must concede they can’t count votes.”
Roughly an hour later, Arizona had, in fact, found the defendant and served him with the indictment, according to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. The Democratic Party elected official posted the update on X by quote-tweeting Giuliani’s early effort at braggadocio.
“The final defendant was served moments ago,” Mayes’ post reads. “@RudyGiuliani nobody is above the law.”
But the knock-down drag-out continued for a little longer.
At some point after being formally indicted, someone deleted the post about Giuliani dodging Arizona law enforcement. Mayes, however, was prepared with a screenshot of the post and added that to the thread – preserving the taunt and diss directed at her office for posterity.
There are 18 co-defendants listed in the six count indictment which includes charges of fraud, forgery, and conspiracy, among others.
Prosecutors first announced that a Grand Canyon State grand jury handed up the indictment on April 24, naming 11 co-defendants. Five additional co-defendants were named, after being served the indictment, two days later, in a follow-up press release.
More Law&Crime coverage: Mark Meadows unmasked in Arizona fake electors indictment, faces 9 felony charges
In late 2020, after presidential election voting was done and then-candidate Joe Biden had clearly won, several allies of then-president Donald Trump aimed to alter the results. What followed was a legally-suspect effort to have alternate, “contingent,” or fake electors deliver Electoral College votes to the 45th president instead of Biden in several swing states. Those efforts have since become the source of criminal charges in both Georgia and, most recently, in Arizona.
“Defendants deceived the public by arguing the scheme to have Republican electors vote for Trump-Pence in Arizona and six other states was legal,” the indictment reads. “Defendants’ attempts to declare [Donald Trump] and [Mike] Pence the winners of the 2020 Presidential Election contrary to voter intent and the law, involved numerous other charged and uncharged coconspirators.”
The indictment explains the fake electors plot as follows:
Defendants deceived the citizens of Arizona by falsely claiming that those votes were contingent only on a legal challenge that would change the outcome of the election. In reality, Defendants intended that their false votes for Trump-Pence would encourage Pence to reject the Biden-Harris votes on January 6, 2021, regardless of the outcome of the legal challenge. When combined with the six other States where Republican electors sent in uncertified votes for TrumpPence, Defendants wanted Pence to either declare Unindicted Coconspirator 1 the winner of the election, delay the proceeding and have individual state legislatures determine their electors, or have Congress resolve any claimed uncertainty about the validity of election results in Arizona and six other states in Unindicted Coconspirator 1’s favor. The scheme failed when Vice President Michael Pence accepted all certified Biden-Harris votes on January 6, 2021.
Giuliani was the final piece of the prosecutorial puzzle, it seems – though he was identified by Law&Crime as one of the co-defendants whose names were initially-redacted in the indictment late last month.
In his post on X, the man once called hizzoner also included a selfie. In the photograph, Giuliani was smiling with what looked to be a group of well well-wishers at his 80th birthday party in Palm Beach, Florida.
Roughly an hour after that social media brag, the smiles and joviality literally turned to screams, according to the New York Post.
The newspaper reports that several of the 75 or so guests screamed as two members of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office served Giuliani with the indictment. One woman reportedly cried.
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