Giuliani among 18 indicted for election interference in Ariz.
PHOENIX — An Arizona grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer Rudy Giuliani and 16 others for their roles in an attempt to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
The indictment released Wednesday names 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump won Arizona in 2020. They include the former state party chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers, who are charged with nine counts each of conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
The identities of seven other defendants, including Giuliani and Meadows, were not immediately released because they had not yet been served with the documents. They were readily identifiable based on descriptions of the defendants, however.
Trump was not charged but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.
With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where Trump allies have been charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related to the election. Heading into a likely November rematch with Biden, Trump continues to spread lies about the last election that are echoed by many of his supporters.
The indictment alludes to Giuliani as an attorney “who was often identified as the Mayor” and spread false allegations of election fraud. Another defendant is referred to as Trump’s “chief of staff in 2020,” which describes Meadows.
George Terwilliger, a lawyer representing Meadows, said he had not yet seen the indictment, but if Meadows is named, “it is a blatantly political and politicized accusation and will be contested and defeated.” Giuliani’s political adviser, Ted Goodman, decried what he called “the continued weaponization of our justice system.”
Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.
Mexico criminal gangs:
Mexico’s president said Thursday that the country’s violent criminal gangs and drug cartels are essentially “respectful people” who “respect the citizenry” and mostly just kill each other.
The claims by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are clearly at odds with the reality of millions of Mexicans who live in areas dominated by drug cartels. The cartels routinely demand protection payments from residents and kill or kidnap them if they refuse to pay.
When López Obrador visited the township of Badiraguato, Sinaloa — the hometown of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — a reporter asked whether drug cartels behaved well.
“Always!” López Obrador responded. “Sometimes we come upon people who are strange, but respectful.”
López Obrador has long refused to directly confront the cartels, who he claims were forced into criminality by a lack of opportunities. His “Hugs, not bullets” strategy offers job training programs for youths so they won’t become cartel gunmen.
In the past, he appeared to normalize the gangs’ presence, encouraging Mexicans to negotiate peace pacts among the cartels.
Houthis attack ships: A ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Thursday, officials said, the latest assault carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The attack comes after the U.S. military said early Thursday that an allied warship shot down a Houthi missile targeting a vessel the day before near the same area.
In Thursday’s attack, a ship was targeted 15 miles southwest of Aden, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The attack was also reported by the private security firm Ambrey.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attack late Thursday, identifying the ship the rebels tried to target as the MSC Darwin.
European Union forces separately shot down a drone launched from Houthi territory Thursday, Gen. Robert Brieger said.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. However, Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks.
US troop withdrawals: The United States will pull the majority of its troops from Chad and Niger as it works to restore key agreements governing roles there for the American military and its counterterrorism operations, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Both African countries have been integral to the U.S. military’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations across the Sahel region, but Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month allowing U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. In recent days, neighboring Chad also has questioned whether an agreement covered the U.S. troops operating there.
U.S. and Nigerien officials were expected to meet Thursday in Niger’s capital, Niamey, with follow-up meetings between senior Pentagon and Niger officials expected next week.
Texas voter fraud: Prosecutors in Texas asked the state’s highest criminal appeals court Thursday to reverse a ruling that overturned a Fort Worth woman’s voter fraud conviction and fiveyear prison term for casting an illegal provisional ballot.
Crystal Mason was convicted in 2018 of illegal voting in district court. Prosecutors maintained that Mason read and signed an affidavit accompanying the provisional ballot affirming that she had “fully completed” her sentence if convicted of a felony.
But the 2nd Court of Appeals ruled that even if she read the words on the affidavit, she may not have known that being on probation for a previous felony conviction left her ineligible to vote in 2016.
Tommy Buser-clancy, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which has been one of Mason’s representatives in the case, said in a statement that the request for further review of Mason’s case was “disappointing,” but they were “confident that justice will ultimately prevail.”
UK horses in surgery: Two military horses that bolted and ran miles through the streets of London after being spooked by construction noise and tossing their riders were in serious condition Thursday after undergoing operations, a U.K. government official said.
Four horses broke free during routine exercises Wednesday near Buckingham Palace and caused chaos as they galloped loose through central London during morning rush hour. A fifth tried to bolt but couldn’t break free.
Three soldiers thrown from their steeds were hospitalized with injuries but are expected to fully recover and return to work.
The British army said three of the horses are expected to return to duty.