Rudy Giuliani served with Arizona indictment at 80th birthday bash
CNN
By Paradise Afshar, Kyung Lah and Shania Shelton, CNN
(CNN) — Rudy Giuliani was served Friday with notice of his indictment related to an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona, according to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
“The final defendant was served moments ago,” Mayes, a Democrat, said in a post on X in which Giuliani is tagged. “@RudyGiuliani nobody is above the law.”
The summons is a formal notice that a defendant has been criminally charged and must appear before a judge. Richie Taylor, a spokesperson for Mayes, previously told CNN that the attorney general’s office had tried for weeks to locate Giuliani.
Caroline Wren, a GOP operative and adviser to Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, told CNN she was hosting Giuliani’s 80th birthday party in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday evening when the former New York City mayor was served.
An attendee of the party told CNN that Giuliani was served papers by two agents of the Arizona attorney general’s office in the late hours of the birthday bash. “They stormed him on his way out,” the attendee said, adding that “many of the guests were visibly upset.”
“The mayor was unfazed by the decision to try and embarrass him during his 80th birthday party. He enjoyed an incredible evening with hundreds of people who love him—from all walks of life — and we look forward to full vindication soon,” said Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani.
CNN has reached out to Mayes’ office for comment.
On Friday evening, Giuliani tweeted a taunting message and photo of himself surrounded by smiling friends. “If Arizona authorities can’t find me by tomorrow morning,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet, “1. They must dismiss the indictment; 2. They must concede they can’t count votes.”
Hours later, Giuliani was served notice of the indictment.
Giuliani is expected to appear Tuesday for an arraignment in Phoenix unless he is granted a delay by the court.
Giuliani is among a group of former President Donald Trump’s allies indicted last month in Arizona alongside the 11 individuals who acted as fake GOP electors from the state in the 2020 presidential election.
The individual who CNN has identified as Giuliani is described in the indictment as spreading false claims of voter fraud across the country after the 2020 election, falsely claiming Arizona officials “made no effort to find out” whether the vote was accurate, and encouraging “Republican electors in Arizona and in six other contested states to vote for Trump-Pence on December 14, 2020.”
Former Trump lawyer John Eastman was the first defendant charged in the Arizona case to appear in court. He pleaded not guilty in Phoenix on Friday on charges related to allegedly participating in a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona. The others, including Giuliani, are scheduled to follow suit in the coming weeks.
The Arizona indictment is just the latest legal woe for Giuliani stemming from his time as Trump’s attorney after the 2020 presidential election. He filed for bankruptcy in federal court in New York in December days after a jury ordered him to pay nearly $150 million to two former Georgia election workers for making defamatory statements about them.
Giuliani is also an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s federal election subversion case, faces 13 charges in the Georgia election subversion case, and is being sued for defamation by both Dominion and Smartmatic, voting technology companies that he falsely said rigged the 2020 election.
CNN’s Zachary Cohen and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
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