11 Republicans Plead Not Guilty in Arizona Presidential Electors Case

Meanwhile, out in Arizona, the usual suspects in Trumpian electoral shenanigans enter not guilty pleas after having been rounded up.

Washington Post:

One by one, 11 Republicans who allegedly tried to deliver Arizona’s presidential electoral votes to Donald Trump after his 2020 defeat appeared in a downtown courthouse Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the same nine criminal counts, which include conspiracy, fraud and forgery.

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The day kicked off with Kelli Ward, the former state party chairwoman, and ended with Rudy Giuliani, a former attorney for Trump who appeared virtually after being served his summons following his birthday party Friday night. Prosecutors said he had deliberately dodged service for three weeks. In between the two were local activists and Christina Bobb, an attorney who helped Trump in 2020 who is now a senior counsel to the Republican National Committee’s election integrity team.

One defendant pleaded not guilty last week, and six others are expected to appear in court in the coming weeks.

The arraignments brought together a cast of characters whom state prosecutors have accused of playing key roles in trying to subvert President Biden’s win over Trump four years ago. Their alleged actions, along with those of other GOP figures from Arizona and beyond, intensified distrust in U.S. elections and institutions in this sprawling swing state.

Presidential electors are empowered by the Constitution to determine the outcome of presidential elections. Typically, only electors of the winning candidate meet in mid-December to cast votes for that candidate after electoral results have been certified by state officials. But in 2020, when the Democrats’ electors showed up in seven states that Biden had won to declare him as their rightful winner, Republican electors also gathered to declare Trump the winner of their states. The convening of the GOP electors was part of a legal and political strategy, according to records and prosecutors, to give Congress a foundation to raise the notion that the outcome of the election was in doubt.

Arizona is one of four states where Republicans have been charged in the formation of an alternate slate of presidential electors falsely claiming that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Several top Trump allies were also charged in Arizona, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Jenna Ellis and John Eastman, top campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, and former campaign aide Mike Roman.

Eastman pleaded not guilty Friday. Meadows, Ellis, Epshteyn and Roman are expected to be arraigned next month, along with two Republicans who served as pro-Trump electors in 2020.