Rudy Giuliani, a former adviser to Donald Trump, appeared in court in Arizona for the first time on Tuesday, accused along with 17 others of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election in the southwestern state that Joe Biden won.
• Read also: Trump trial: Debates end without the former president's testimony
• Read also: What to remember from the testimony in Donald Trump's impeachment trial
• Read also: Gaza: A truce is still “possible” but has become “complicated,” according to Blinken
In April, Arizona courts indicted 18 people who alleged a conspiracy to allocate electoral votes to Donald Trump, the official appointee of the president of the United States.
Arizona, a key state in the current presidential campaign between the same two men, was ultimately won by Joe Biden by a narrow margin.
Rudy Giuliani, who appeared Tuesday via video, denied the accusations. In particular, he denies that he spread false information about supposed election fraud in Arizona and pressured elected officials to change the outcome of the election.
According to the indictment, the former New York mayor also encouraged Republican voters in Arizona and other states to declare Donald Trump the winner when he was not.
Other defendants include Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, lawyers Jenna Ellis and John Eastman, and campaign adviser Boris Epshtain.
Several of these people have also been indicted in Georgia, along with Donald Trump himself this time, as part of one of four criminal trials targeting the former president.
Two other states have filed lawsuits against people suspected of trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election: Michigan and Nevada.
The 2020 election has been chaotic in the weeks following Donald Trump's defeat. These tensions reached their peak on January 6, 2021, with the attack on the Capitol building in Washington by supporters of the Republican billionaire. The latter still refuses to acknowledge his defeat after nearly four years.
