Former Trump chief of employees pleads not responsible

Phoenix. Donald Trump’s former presidential chief of employees, Mark Meadows, and Trump’s 2020 Election Day operations director, Michael Roman, pleaded not responsible Friday in Phoenix to 9 felony prices for his or her roles in an try and overturn Trump’s electoral defeat in Arizona in opposition to Joe Biden

Meadows and Roman appeared by way of video convention in short, separate hearings earlier than Maricopa County Superior Court docket Commissioner Shellie Smith, who set a trial date for Oct. 31.

Meadows and Roman spoke in the course of the hearings solely to reply Smith’s questions with their names and dates of delivery. His attorneys intervened on his behalf to make his declarations of innocence.

The indictment alleges that Meadows labored with different members of the Trump marketing campaign to submit names of pretend delegates from Arizona and different states to Congress in an try and hold Trump in workplace regardless of his defeat on the polls in November 2020.

The doc claims that 11 Arizona Republicans filed papers falsely stating that Trump had gained Arizona. Biden gained Arizona by greater than 10,000 votes. The indictment additionally says Meadows confided to a White Home staffer in early November 2020 that Trump had misplaced the election.

Roman is accused within the indictment of working carefully with Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn and others to rearrange pretend votes by electors in Arizona and 6 different states.

Exterior courtroom, Roman’s legal professional, Kurt Altman, vowed to combat the costs.

“Mike Roman has no relationship with Arizona. The rationale for this accusation is past us,” Altman instructed reporters. “However we’re going to face actuality and defend ourselves.”

Legal professional Anne Chapman represented Meadows remotely in the course of the listening to. Up to now, she has not responded to a cellphone name and an electronic mail from The Related Press wherein feedback had been requested on behalf of their shopper.

Giuliani, the previous mayor of New York Metropolis, pleaded not responsible in Might to 9 felony prices stemming from his position within the phony impeachment initiative. The Arizona indictment additionally contains felony prices in opposition to Trump attorneys John Eastman, Christina Bobb and Jenna Ellis.

Epshteyn, Ellis and James Lamon, one other Republican who claimed Trump gained Arizona, are scheduled to current their arguments on June 18.

Meadows and Roman had already pleaded not responsible in Georgia state courtroom to prices alleging they participated in an unlawful scheme to attempt to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election.

Roman was charged in Wisconsin on Tuesday with forgery for allegedly giving that state’s bogus delegate paperwork to a member of a Pennsylvania congressman’s employees after which delivering it to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, when the Congress was certifying the outcomes.

Different states the place legal prices have been filed associated to the phony delegate scheme embrace Michigan, Nevada and Georgia.