Arizona judge sets 2026 trial date for Trump allies' election subversion case

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, the ex-White House chief of staff, and Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal attorney, are among the 16 total defendants with remaining charges, all of whom have pleaded not guilty.

Giuliani’s attorney said Monday during the hearing that the charges against the longtime Trump ally should be dismissed because he did nothing criminal while contesting President Biden’s narrow 2020 win in the state.  

The state has accused Giuliani of spreading false claims of election fraud and pressuring state and local officials to change the outcome of the election. Prosecutors also say he presided over a gathering in Phoenix after the election where he accused officials of making no effort to determine the accuracy of the election's outcome.

“How is Mr. Giuliani to know that, oh my gosh, he presided over a meeting in downtown Phoenix,” Giuliani lawyer Mark Williams asked sarcastically, according to The Associated Press. “How is he to know that that’s a crime?” 

Several other defendants, the state’s so-called fake electors, signed a document falsely claiming Trump won Arizona’s 2020 presidential election.

At least a dozen defendants are seeking to have their charges thrown out under an Arizona law barring the use of baseless legal actions to silence critics. They point the finger at Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who they say campaigned on investigating the alternate electors case and is opposed to Trump.

Prosecutors have said that the defendants lack evidence to back up their claims. The Arizona attorney general’s office declined to comment.

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 in June the Nevada case was dismissed, a decision that state prosecutors have appealed. 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.