Several Trump allies including Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani will stand trial on Jan. 5, 2026, on charges they conspired to subvert Arizona’s 2020 presidential election results, a judge said Monday.
The trial date falls just one day short of what will be the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, where a mob of Trump supporters – emboldened by his false claims of election fraud – stormed the Capitol as the election certification was underway.
Meadows, ex-White House chief of staff and Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal attorney, are among the 16 total defendants with remaining charges. Several other defendants, the state’s so-called “fake electors,” signed a document falsely claiming Trump won Arizona’s 2020 presidential election. They were indicted in April and have pleaded not guilty.
Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis was previously indicted, but her charges were dismissed after she pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Arizona prosecutors earlier this month. A Republican activist who falsely claimed Trump won the election also pleaded guilty.
Trump himself is not a defendant in the case but is described as “unindicted co-conspirator 1” in charging documents. However, he has been charged for his alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in a federal case and in Georgia.
The alternate electors scheme relied on former Vice President Mike Pence to certify slates of Trump-supporting electors in battleground states instead of the true Electoral College votes cast for President Biden. Pence declined to do so on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada have also filed criminal charges related to the scheme, though the Nevada case was dismissed in June, which state prosecutors have appealed.
