PHOENIX — Allies of former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Arizona to charges related to their involvement in a scheme to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 presidential election.
A former lawyer for Trump was among the 11 people charged on Tuesday Rudy Giuliani and so-called “fake electors” who signed documents claiming to be the electors of the Arizona Electoral College, even as current President Joe Biden narrowly carried the state and Arizona certified his victory.
Others charged Tuesday included former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward and her husband Michael Ward; state legislator Anthony Kern; Robert Montgomery, the former head of the Cochise County GOP; Republican Party activists Samuel Moorhead, Nancy Cottle and Loraine Pellegrino; Greg Safsten, the former executive director of the Arizona GOP; former Trump attorney Christina Bobb; and Tyler Bowyer, a board member of the Republican National Committee in Arizona and the chief operating officer of the Trump-aligned Turning Point Action.
Giuliani, Bowyer, Cottle, Montgomery, Pellegrino and Bobb appeared virtually.
They were among 18 people indicted by a state grand jury last month over the scheme.
The accused “fake voters” and their alleged accomplices face fraud, forgery and conspiracy charges announced last month by Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse after the Wards pleaded not guilty, their attorney Brad Miller said that “no crime has been defined by the attorney general’s office,” claiming that “[the case is] a matter of the First Amendment.”
Several of the suspects in the Arizona case have also been indicted on similar charges in Georgia, where prosecutors also allege Trump allies tried to overturn the election there.
In recent weeks, every defendant except Giuliani has been served with charges in the case. He even taunted Mayes in a now-deleted social media post, bragging about dodging charging documents.
He was finally served on Friday evening, during his 80th birthday party in Palm Beach, Florida.
“We mainly found him through his live streams. He’s not that hard to find,” Mayes told CNN on Monday.
“Our officers assisted him professionally after his birthday party as the party was coming to an end,” she added.
Another Trump ally charged in addition to those charged Tuesday is former Trump attorney John Eastman. He pleaded not guilty in this case last week.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
