Rudy Giuliani, late to arraignment, says he wasn't hiding from Arizona prosecutors

It was unclear to spectators in the courtroom Tuesday if Rudy Giuliani would show up for his arraignment.

He'd been uncooperative with prosecutors in Arizona's fake electors case so far and just received his summons Friday night – after his 80th birthday party in Florida.

When court got underway around 8:45 a.m., there was no sign of Giuliani in the gallery, and there was nothing identifying him on the screen where some defendants were appearing virtually.

For roughly an hour, the defendants were called to make their appearances and enter their pleas one by one. Then, after the 10th defendant, a brief silence in the courtroom was interrupted by the ping that signals someone has entered a Microsoft Teams meeting.

"Hello? This is Rudy Giuliani."

Giuliani, who called into the hearing, apologized for being late. He got the time wrong, he said.

Commissioner Shellie Smith, who has heard all of the defendants' pleas so far in the case but will not be the trial judge, acknowledged Giuliani then took a few minutes before proceeding with his arraignment.

Giuliani did not have a lawyer on the call, but he said he would be getting one soon. What he did need, he said, was a copy of the 58-page indictment a Maricopa County grand jury issued in April.

"I do have a general familiarity with the charges from, you know, reading of the newspapers," the former Trump lawyer said.

What Giuliani is charged with

The Arizona Attorney General's Office accused the former New York mayor and 17 others of falsely certifying Donald Trump won Arizona in the 2020 election. In reality, a slim majority of voters favored Joe Biden. The defendants face multiple felony counts, including conspiracy, forgery and fraud. If convicted, they could be sentenced to prison.

Smith entered Giuliani's not-guilty plea Tuesday and told him his upcoming court dates.

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When the time came to discuss release conditions, Nick Klingerman, the criminal division chief in the Arizona Attorney General's Office, asked Smith to require Giuliani to pay a $10,000 cash bond and order him to appear for booking within 30 days. No other defendant in the case has prompted similar requests so far.

"I want wanted to make a record because service of the summons for this arraignment has been quite the process," Klingerman said.

Arizona agents went to New York and attempted to serve Giuliani, Klingerman said. They spent hours outside his Manhattan residence, he said, knowing Giuliani was there because his video podcast from a day before showed surroundings that matched interior photos from Zillow. But, Klingerman said, the doorman would not let them up.

Agents also called multiple phone numbers associated with Giuliani, the prosecutor said. They left messages saying who they were and why they were calling, but they never heard back. Agents even sent the summons via certified mail.

Throughout this process, Klingerman said, Giuliani made several statements on his podcast and elsewhere indicating he was aware of the indictment, but he never reached out to prosecutors or otherwise cooperated.

To prove Giuliani deserved the bond request and booking deadline, Klingerman presented the court with two posts Giuliani made on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The first was a now-deleted taunt from Friday night that dared agents to find him. They did, about an hour later.

The second was from Sunday. In it, Giuliani said he learned a day before his birthday party that agents were looking for him. He told them where he'd be, he said. That was not true, Klingerman said.

"He has shown no intent to comply with the legal process in Arizona," Klingerman said.

Giuliani told the court that agents could have easily found him. He said he has been on the radio and television announcing his location every day since the indictment came out.

"I haven't been hiding from anyone," he said.

Giuliani said agents could not get into his 10-story apartment building because he had strict rules for people trying to reach him there. He has received a "fair number of threats" over the years, even death threats, he said. He tried to explain further before Smith cut him off.

Within moments, as Smith and Klingerman were discussing the bond request, Giuliani jumped in again, calling the Arizona indictment a "complete embarrassment to the American legal systems." He said the case was "completely political" and was filed "very, very late."

Smith cut Giuliani off again and ordered him to post a $10,000 bail bond and appear for his booking within a month's time.

After the hearing, Klingerman told reporters Giuliani had made several statements "mocking the justice system in Arizona" since the indictment was filed.

Contrary to what Giuliani said in court, Klingerman said, the case was "absolutely not politically motivated."

"This case went before an independent grand jury, who chose to issue indictments," he said.

Elena Santa Cruz is a justice reporter for The Republic. Reach her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Giuliani, late to arraignment, says he didn't hide from Arizona agents