PHOENIX (AP) — Donald Trump’s former presidential chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Trump’s 2020 Election Day operations director, Michael Roman, pleaded not guilty Friday in Phoenix to nine felony charges for their role. in an attempt to overturn Trump’s election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden
Meadows and Roman appeared via video conference in brief, separate hearings before Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Shellie Smith, who set a trial date for Oct. 31.
Meadows and Roman spoke during the hearings only to answer Smith’s questions with their names and dates of birth. His lawyers intervened on his behalf to make his declarations of innocence.
The indictment alleges that Meadows worked with other members of the Trump campaign to submit names of fake delegates from Arizona and other states to Congress in an attempt to keep Trump in office despite his defeat at the polls in November 2020.
The document claims that 11 Arizona Republicans filed papers falsely claiming that Trump had won Arizona. Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes. The indictment also says Meadows confided to a White House staffer in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election.
Roman is accused in the indictment of working closely with Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn and others to arrange fake votes by electors in Arizona and six other states.
Outside court, Roman’s attorney, Kurt Altman, vowed to fight the charges.
“Mike Roman has no relationship with Arizona. The reason for this accusation is beyond us,” Altman told reporters. “But we are going to face reality and defend ourselves.”
Attorney Anne Chapman represented Meadows remotely during the hearing. So far, she has not responded to a phone call and an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on behalf of her client.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, pleaded not guilty in May to nine felony charges stemming from his role in the phony impeachment initiative. The Arizona indictment also includes felony charges against Trump lawyers John Eastman, Christina Bobb and Jenna Ellis.
Epshteyn, Ellis and James Lamon, another Republican who claimed Trump won Arizona, are scheduled to present their arguments on June 18.
Meadows and Roman had already pleaded not guilty in Georgia state court to charges alleging they participated in an illegal scheme to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Roman was charged in Wisconsin on Tuesday with forgery for allegedly giving that state’s bogus delegate paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer and then delivering it to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, when the Congress was certifying the results.
Other states where criminal charges have been filed related to the bogus delegate scheme include Michigan, Nevada and Georgia.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
AP
