The Trump tsunami continues: Rudy Giuliani, the legendary former mayor of New York, is under indictment

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Seven Trump aides and 11 other pro-Trump Arizona Republicans were indicted in Phoenix. Among them are the persons who signed the documents that they are supposed to be valid electors of the state in 2020.

In this trial – exceptionally – the former president himself is not accused, but is listed as conspirator No. 1.

Other defendants include former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who served as Trump’s lawyer, and White House Chief of Staff Mike Meadows, the second-in-command in the president’s office. It was Meadows who told his assistant on the morning of the attack on the Capitol that “something is going to happen today.”

Prosecutors told a grand jury that the 18 defendants conspired to create false allegations of election fraud to pressure Arizona election officials to overturn Biden’s narrow victory in the state.

The indictment, dated Tuesday but made public Wednesday, describes the charges filed, the persuasive messages sent to county and state officials, and the December 2020 signatures of “false voter” documents.

All 11 pro-Trump electors face nine counts each, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery

“Joseph Biden was elected President of Arizona and the United States on November 3, 2020,” the indictment states. “Unwilling to accept the fact of the outcome of the election, the defendants and the conspirators (Trump) planned to block the lawful transfer of the office of the presidency in order to keep Conspirator #1 in office against the will of the voters of Arizona. This manipulation would have deprived Arizona voters of their right to vote and to have their votes counted fairly,” the indictment says.

Among the not yet officially named defendants are several members of Trump’s legal staff, as well as Mike Oman, the director of operations for the 2020 presidential campaign.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office said the names of the defendants will be officially released after he is served with the indictment and summonses. (This will probably happen today.) Until then, their names have been withheld from the materials given to the press.

“As I have said before, I will say it again today, I will not allow American democracy to be undermined. This is too important a case for America,” said the district attorney.

The 2020 Arizona presidential race was one of the tightest

Biden won by just over 10,000 votes over Trump here, as Arizona was one of seven “battleground states” where “alternative electors” gathered (which amounts to fraud) and falsely claimed to be duly elected electors.

The hope was that then-Vice President Mike Pence would recognize electors who supported Trump instead of actual electoral votes cast for Biden.

Arizona is now the fourth state to indict pro-Trump politicians, following Michigan, Nevada and Georgia.

The indictment alleges that Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani — often referred to simply as “the mayor” — spread false allegations of election fraud throughout Arizona. He pressured state officials to change the results of the vote and, according to the indictment, was responsible for getting some electors to vote on the presidential ticket.

Former Arizona Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers had previously implicated Giuliani in testimony before a House committee on Jan. 6. Bowers said that despite repeatedly asking the New York mayor-turned-Trump deputy for evidence of his allegations of election fraud, Giuliani has produced none. “Giuliani said, ‘We have a lot of theories, but no evidence,'” Bowers testified.

Meadows, according to the indictment, illegally cooperated with members of the Trump campaign to “coordinate and execute” the votes of alternative electors in battleground states. (According to the rule, members of the White House, i.e. the government, cannot participate in election operations, and they must be managed separately from the presidential staff and treasury.)

Other Trump allies helped carry out the plan, including pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to accept a list of pro-Trump voters, according to the indictment. This series of pressures resulted in the rebellion against the Capitol on December 6, 2021.

All of the names on the list are protesting the indictment, which they consider – in Trump’s words – a political witch hunt.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, said in a statement that the indictment was “another example of Democrats using the legal system as a weapon. “The Democratic platform will try to put us in jail by 2024 if it can’t defeat us,” Cheung said.