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Rudy Giuliani, other Trump allies being arraigned in Arizona on charges related to alleged fake elector scheme
At least 12 allies of former President Donald Trump are being arraigned in Phoenix on charges that include conspiracy, fraud and forgery that are related to an alleged scheme to put forward phony electors in the 2020 election who backed Trump despite President Biden winning the state.
Rudy Giuliani is among the defendants on the docket after being served Friday night while leaving his 80th birthday party, and appeared virtually for the hearing. Other defendants include former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb, former Turning Point USA youth director Tyler Bowyer and Arizona Republican state election officials.
Trump, who is currently being tried in an unrelated case in a New York criminal court on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, is not among the defendants, but he is repeatedly referenced in the indictment as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” He has pleaded not guilty in the New York case.
The Arizona indictment alleges the defendants “knowingly falsified, concealed or covered up by a material fact or any trick, scheme or device or made or used any false writing or document knowing such writing or document contained any false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or entry, to wit: two certificates of votes for President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael Pence, filed by the Arizona Republican electors with the Arizona Secretary of State.”
Ross D. Franklin / AP
The charges center around the submission of a document to Congress declaring — falsely — that Trump had won the state. Mr. Biden won the state by over 10,000 votes. Ward is accused of organizing the effort, the indictment alleges, and wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept the false submission as valid.
According to the indictment, the electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed that certificate claiming to be the “duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States from the State of Arizona.” The indictment alleges they also posted a video that day on social media saying, “We are the electors who represent the legal voters of Arizona! #Trump2020 #MAGA.”
In announcing the indictments, Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said “the scheme, had it succeeded, would have deprived Arizona’s voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president.”
Former Trump attorney John Eastman, who has been accused of devising the scheme to try to persuade Congress not to accept the election results, pleaded not guilty last Friday to fraud, conspiracy and forgery charges.
Arizona is one of seven states that Trump lost in 2020 where his allies are accused of schemes to put up alternate electors for the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when lawmakers met to count the Electoral College votes.
Trump allies have also been charged over similar alleged false elector schemes in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
In addition to the New York criminal charges, Trump has been charged with dozens of other felonies in three other jurisdictions, including federal charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and charges in Fulton County, Georgia, related to alleged election interference there. He has pleaded not guilty and denies all wrongdoing. In addition to Trump, Giuliani, Meadows, Ellis, Eastman and Michael Roman, who are all charged in Arizona, are among the 19 defendants in Georgia.
As countries around the world experiment with shorter work weeks, Greece has taken a step in the opposite direction — introducing a six-day work week for some businesses that operate on a 24-hour basis.
The six-day work week is allowed according to new legislation that went into effect on July 1, according to CBS News’ partner network BBC News. It is optional for workers, who can work 48 hours instead of the typical 40 hours. Those who opt in can choose between working an additional two hours a day or an extra eight-hour shift, The Guardian reported. Workers will be paid 40% extra for the additional time.
“It is important to note that this measure does not affect in any way the established five-day working week mandated by law. Instead, it serves to address urgent operational demands that cannot be met through the available supply of specialised workers,” a spokesperson for Greece’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security told the BBC.
Greece’s government sees it as a way to boost economic growth and protect workers against “under-declared or undeclared work and ensure fair compensation,” the BBC reported.
Before the Greek parliament endorsed the law, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said “the nucleus of this legislation is worker-friendly, it is deeply growth-oriented. And it brings Greece in line with the rest of Europe,” according to The Guardian.
While workers in Greece may choose to increase their workload, working hours are capped at 48 hours, according to guidelines laid out by the European Union’s Working Time Directive. And as the BBC reports, tourist and food industry businesses are excluded.
The new law comes as other countries are forgoing a five-day work model in favor of shorter work weeks — a movement that gained traction in the wake of the COVID pandemic as workers across the world grew accustomed to more flexible working arrangements.
Trials of a four-day workweek in Iceland were called an “overwhelming success” by researchers in 2021, and many workers there moved to shorter hours, the BBC reported.
In France, the standard work week is 35 hours – per a law adopted in 2000 under the administration of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin – and there’s been a push to whittle it down even further, to 32 hours.
In the U.S., workers have also been clamoring for less time “in office.” More companies across the country are experimenting with a truncated workweek as employees demand flexibility and studies show that working less can make people more productive while boosting a company’s profits.
In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced a bill to reduce the work week from 40 hours to 32 without affecting workers’ overall compensation.
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