Former federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani is reportedly eluding Arizona prosecutors who are attempting to serve him an indictment notice.
This indictment is linked to his alleged involvement in the fraudulent elector scheme aimed at overturning the 2020 election results.
Giuliani was among the campaign aides and attorneys supporting former President Donald Trump who were indicted in Arizona in April. This group also included eleven individuals accused of acting as "fake electors" in a failed attempt to divert the state's electoral college votes from Joe Biden. Other defendants named in the indictment were Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, former campaign aide Mike Roman, and attorneys Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, and Christina Bobb.
All other defendants have been served, either directly or through their attorneys, with the exception of Giuliani. Richie Taylor, a spokesman for Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, stated that the office had made numerous attempts to serve Giuliani with the summons. This summons is the formal legal notice of the criminal charges against him and requires his appearance before a judge by May 21.
The Attorney General's office even monitored Giuliani's social media posts, according to Taylor. He noted that Giuliani had posted a video stream from his personal residence in New York City the day after the grand jury issued the indictment. Agents confirmed the location by matching the video with photographs of the residence from an old online real estate listing. Two agents traveled to New York City to attempt to hand-deliver the summons to Giuliani, but were unsuccessful.
"We were not granted access," Taylor said. The attorney generals office has also made multiple attempts to try to contact Giuliani by calling various phone numbers for him, "and none of them were successful," Taylor added.
Despite his evasion, the former mayor has been far from reclusive, posting videos of him taunting protesters at Columbia University from the passenger window of his SUV, livestreams from local restaurants and his Palm Beach, Florida condo, and other social media posts indicating he had traveled to Mar-a-Lago to visit Trump. However, Arizona prosecutors are not expected to continue their attempts to serve him the summons.
If Giuliani continues to evade service and the May 21 appearance date passes without him, the next step for prosecutors is to issue an arrest warrant.
The Arizona indictment is just one of many legal troubles facing Giuliani. He is a defendant in another criminal case in Georgia for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election there, is an unindicted co-conspirator in Trumps federal prosecution over the election, faces disbarment in New York and D.C., was ordered to pay a $148 million defamation verdict to two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of committing election fraud, and is facing a second lawsuit from those same two plaintiffs for what they say are his continued defamatory attacks on them.
Additionally, he filed bankruptcy following the $148 million verdict, owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, and recently had his WABC radio show cancelled one of his last remaining income streams.
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