Here is some of the legal news making the headlines this week:

Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies were arraigned and entered not-guilty pleas in an Arizona criminal case.

• Giuliani faces nine felony counts, including conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state, fraud, and forgery. Others charged in the case are former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorneys Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, and Christina Bobb, Trump campaign officials Boris Epshteyn and Mike Roman, and pro-Trump fake electors, including two state senators. Former President Donald Trump was not charged, but he is described in the indictment as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
• At the arraignment on Tuesday, prosecutors accused Giuliani of attempting to evade service of the indictment. He was finally served late last week after bragging on social media that he had not yet received formal notice of the charges. The judge ordered Giuliani to appear in person within 30 days and pay a $10,000 appearance bond, conditions that were not imposed on any other defendant. 
• Arizona is the fourth state to pursue charges against Trump allies for their involvement in efforts to subvert the results of the election. Charges have also been filed in Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada. 

Unsealed court records revealed that additional classified documents were discovered at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after the FBI executed the search warrant in August 2022.

• The March 2023 judicial opinion unsealed this week was written by former Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the Washington, D.C. federal district court. Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida unsealed Howell’s opinion in connection with an attempt by Trump and his co-defendants to seek dismissal of the charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Smith has accused Trump of retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing the investigation.
• In the opinion, Judge Howell wrote that there was “strong evidence that the former president intended to hide boxes from his attorney’s search efforts to comply with the grand jury subpoena, and resultantly, unlawfully to retain any classified documents contained inside any of the boxes purposely removed from the attorney search.” Additional classified documents, Howell wrote, were found in Trump’s bedroom and his office months after the FBI executed the search warrant. Howell continued, “Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago.”
• Over the next two months, Cannon will hold a number of pre-trial hearings related to the Trump prosecution. The trial was originally scheduled to start this week, but Cannon recently vacated that schedule and declined to set a new trial date. Trump’s lawyers have asked for the trial to be pushed until at least after the November election. Smith has asked for the trial to be held this summer.

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