Former Arizona GOP chair and 11 others to be arraigned in fake elector case

Former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward and at least 11 other people are set to be arraigned Tuesday in a Phoenix courtroom on conspiracy, forgery and fraud charges stemming from their roles in an effort to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also is scheduled to be arraigned, though it’s unclear whether he’ll seek a postponement. Arizona authorities tried unsuccessfully over several weeks to serve Giuliani notice of the indictment against him. Giuliani was finally served Friday night as he was walking to a car after his 80th birthday celebration.

Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges last month against Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump, a Republican, had won Arizona. The defendants include five lawyers connected to the former president and two former Trump aides. Biden, a Democrat, won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.

The indictment alleges Ward, a former state senator who led the GOP in Arizona from 2019 until early 2023, organized the fake electors and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare them to be the state's true electors. It says Ward failed to withdraw her vote as a fake elector even though no legal challenges changed the outcome of the presidential race in Arizona.