A grand jury in Arizona has indicted 18 of Donald Trump’s allies, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, for illegally seeking to claim the state’s 2020 electoral votes for the then-US president. The indictment, reached on Tuesday and unsealed on Wednesday, in Arizona charged the 18 Trump allies with illegally seeking to claim the state’s 2020 electoral votes for the then-US president.
The indictment stems from the Trump campaign’s attempts to pressure election officials in several states to overturn the presidential election won by Joe Biden. Trump, 77, has been indicted in Georgia and in federal court for this.
The court papers list “a former US president,” referring to Trump, as an unindicted co-conspirator. The indictment in Maricopa County Superior Court names 11 defendants and redacts the names of seven others, Reuters reported. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a press release announcing the charges that those names would be made public after all of the defendants had been served with the indictment.
Giuliani is among those whose names are redacted, a spokesperson for him, Ted Goodman, confirmed, criticising the prosecution of the former New York mayor as political. Another defendant whose name was redacted is described in the indictment as chief of staff in 2020, the position Mark Meadows held in the Trump White House at that time. Representatives for Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the indictment.
The indictment is a significant development in the ongoing investigations into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. It is unclear whether Trump himself will be charged with a crime, but the indictment of his close allies suggests that the investigation is closing in on him.
