PHOENIX (NEWSnet/AP) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine felony charges resulting from an effort to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden.

Giuliani participated remotely for the arraignment that was held in a Phoenix courtroom.

His trial will be held in October.

At least 12 other people also were arraigned Tuesday for conspiracy, forgery and fraud charges over an effort to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Arizona to Joe Biden. They include former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, whose trial is set for Oct. 17. Arraignment hearings for four others are coming up, starting June 6.

Arizona authorities unveiled the felony charges last month against Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump, a Republican, had won Arizona. The defendants include five lawyers connected to the former president and two former Trump aides.

Biden, a Democrat, won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.

Attorney John Eastman, who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election, was the first defendant in the case to be arraigned, and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Trump himself was not charged in the Arizona case but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.

Arizona is the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related to the election.

The 11 people who claimed to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and asserting that Trump carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time.

The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

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