Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, pleaded not guilty Friday in the Arizona election meddling case, the latest development in criminal prosecutions taking place in five battleground states over the effort to keep the former President President Donald J. Trump takes power in 2020.
Arizona is the second state, after Georgia, to charge Mr. Meadows related to his conduct after the 2020 election. He is accused of participating in the effort to reverse Mr. Trump’s defeat in Arizona, and like like the other defendants, faces charges of conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
Another former Trump aide, Michael Roman, was also charged Friday in Arizona and pleaded not guilty. Mr. Roman worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign and played a key role in the effort to deploy fake voters in swing states that Mr. Trump lost. He was also charged this week in Wisconsin with a fake election scheme there, along with two other former Trump advisers.
There are currently 52 people facing charges related to election interference in five states. They include Mr. Trump, who has been charged in Georgia, although that case is on hold after a long delay. ruling on Wednesday from the state Court of Appeals. No cases are expected to go to trial before the November election. Mr. Trump also faces federal charges of election interference.
The swing state cases are all led by Democratic prosecutors, though they take different approaches.
In Michigan, attorney general Dana Nessel accused a group of Republicans of signing false certificates claiming they were “validly elected and qualified voters” after President Biden won. But in pretrial hearings this week in Lansing, the judge appeared open to defense allegations that at least some of the fake electors were misled by Trump advisers about what was happening. take place.
The judge, Kristen D. Simmons, also raised concerns about the credibility of the state’s lead investigator — “We didn’t get a great presentation,” she said of his testimony — and asked demanding answers as to why Mr. Trump’s advisers did not do so. accused.
In Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul did not charge any of those recruited as fake Trump electors, but instead focused on Trump aides who put together Electoral plan. They include Kenneth Chesebro, the plan’s legal architect; he has already pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia.
The Arizona case was brought by the state’s attorney general, Kris Mayes. Both Mr. Meadows and Mr. Roman appeared virtually Friday for a brief trial in Phoenix.
George J. Terwilliger III, Mr. Meadows’s lead attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
Kurt Altman, Mr. Roman’s lawyer, said in an email that “Mr. Roman’s inclusion as a defendant in this indictment is actually quite puzzling.” In comments to reporters after the arraignment, Mr. Altman described the charges against his client as “excessive” and unjustified.
Both men vigorously fought the charges against them last year in Georgia, where Mr. Meadows searched unsuccessfully to transfer his case to federal court.
The Arizona indictment said that Mr. Meadows “engaged in multiple efforts to keep” Mr. Trump in power “despite his defeat in the polls.” The indictment refers to the 2022 congressional testimony of Mr. Meadows’s assistant, Cassidy Hutchinson, who said that Mr. Meadows told her in early January 2021 that Mr. Trump “knew it was over, he He knows he lost, but we will keep trying.” ,” adding, “I want to solve this problem for him.”
Mr. Meadows personally took a number of steps to challenge the election results, most notably in Georgia, where he joined Mr. Trump’s call to pressure the country’s top election official. state. Mr. Meadows also contacted Arizona officials in the weeks after the election, his text messages and other records show, as the campaign applied pressure there.
Mr. Roman did a lot of logistical work to organize fake voters in several states. And he resisted efforts to add language to documents they signed that would have said they were acting only as a contingency, in case Mr. Trump succeeded in challenging the election results. sent to court, his emails and text messages show.
His profile in the Georgia case was raised this year, when one of his lawyers there, Ashleigh Merchant, shed light on a relationship between Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, and an attorney she hired to manage the case, resulting in ongoing efforts to disqualify Ms. Willis.
In addition to the federal and Georgia charges, Mr. Trump is also an unindicted co-defendant in cases in Arizona and Michigan. He also faces federal charges related to mishandling of classified documents. And last month, a Manhattan jury convicted him of 34 counts of falsifying business records to silence a porn star. He will be sentenced on July 11.
