Giuliani surrenders in Trump election subversion case, $150,000 bond set
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[August 24, 2023]
By Jack Queen
ATLANTA (Reuters) -Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Rudolph
Giuliani surrendered on Wednesday at an Atlanta jail to face state
charges arising from actions he was accused of taking to overturn the
former U.S. president's 2020 election loss.
Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor, was
ordered to pay a $150,000 bond and not to intimidate any of his 18
co-defendants or witnesses in the case, according to court papers.
"This indictment is a travesty," Giuliani told reporters after his jail
appearance. "This is an assault on the Constitution."
Eight other of Trump's co-defendants in the criminal case brought by
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accusing him and his
associates of trying to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia also
have surrendered, according to county records.
Trump was set to turn himself in on Thursday to face his fourth criminal
indictment this year. The remaining 10 co-defendants named in the
Georgia indictment have until Friday to surrender. Trump has called his
four indictments politically motivated.
The front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination to challenge
Democratic President Joe Biden, Trump continues to make false claims
that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting
fraud. Giuliani played a prominent public role in the Trump campaign's
efforts to push these false claims.
In the Georgia case, Giuliani was accused of making numerous false
statements about election fraud, including to officials in other states
such as Arizona and Pennsylvania, in a failed bid to convince them to
approve an alternative slate of electors in the formal congressional
certification of the election results to keep Trump in power.
Giuliani and other Trump allies were also accused of making false
statements to Georgia lawmakers about the election.
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Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters
outside the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., August 23,
2023. REUTERS/Dustin Chambers
Four co-defendants also surrendered at the jail on Wednesday,
according to records posted on the Fulton County sheriff's office
website. They were attorneys Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Kenneth
Chesebro and Ray Smith, all of whom were charged with playing a role
in the attempt to overturn Trump's defeat.
On Tuesday, Trump's former lawyer John Eastman and Republican poll
watcher Scott Hall surrendered while former Georgia Republican Party
leaders Cathy Latham and David Shafer - were booked overnight,
according to the jail.
Shafer, Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and
former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark have filed
petitions to have their cases moved to federal court.
A federal judge in Atlanta on Wednesday rejected separate bids by
Clark and Meadows to avoid a Friday noon deadline to surrender to
authorities in Fulton County.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to two sets of federal criminal charges
brought by Jack Smith, a special counsel named by Biden-appointed
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, concerning the efforts to
overturn his 2020 election loss and his possession of classified
documents after leaving office. Trump also pleaded not guilty in a
Manhattan case involving hush money paid before the 2016 election to
a porn star.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in Atlanta, additional reporting by Susan
Heavey and Jacqueline Thomsen in WashingtonEditing by Scott Malone,
Will Dunham and Matthew Lewis)
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