Giuliani turns himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges

Atlanta: Rudy Giuliani has turned himself in at a jail in Atlanta on charges related to efforts to overturn then-president Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election.

The former New York mayor was indicted last week along with Trump and 17 others in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said they participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to subvert the will of the voters after the Republican president lost to Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020. Bond was set at $US150,000 ($231,000), second only to Trump’s $US200,000.

This booking photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office shows Rudy Giuliani after he surrendered to police.Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

Giuliani, 79, is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel Georgia representatives and other closely contested states to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint electoral college electors favourable to Trump.

Georgia was one of several key states Trump lost by slim margins, prompting the Republican and his allies to proclaim, without evidence, that the election was rigged in favour of his Democratic rival Biden.

Giuliani is charged with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state representatives to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternative slate of pro-Trump electors.

Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters as he leaves his apartment building in New York.Credit: AP

Leaving his apartment in New York on Wednesday morning (US time), Giuliani said he was “fighting for justice” and has been since he first started representing Trump.

“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Giuliani told reporters.

Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has said he plans to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday. He and his allies have characterised the investigation as politically motivated and have heavily criticised District Attorney Willis, a Democrat.

Giuliani criticised the indictment of lawyers beside himself who had worked for Trump and said the justice system was being politicised. He also highlighted the fact that some of the people indicted are not household names.

“Donald Trump told you this: They weren’t just coming for him or me,” Giuliani said. “Now they’ve indicted people in this case I don’t even know who they are. These are just regular people making a normal living.”

Willis has set a deadline of noon on Friday for the people indicted last week in the election subversion case to turn themselves in. Her team has been negotiating bond amounts and conditions with the lawyers for the defendants before they surrender at the jail.

A $US100,000 bond was set for Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell, one of several people accused in a breach of voting equipment in rural Coffee County, in south Georgia. Misty Hampton, who was the Coffee County elections director when the breach happened, had her bond set at $US10,000.

David Shafer, who’s a former Georgia Republican Party chair and served as one of 16 fake electors for Trump, and Cathy Latham, who’s accused in the Coffee County breach and was also a fake elector, turned themselves in on Wednesday. Also surrendering Wednesday were lawyers Ray Smith and Kenneth Chesebro, who prosecutors said helped organise the fake electors meeting at the state Capitol in December 2020.

Attorney John Eastman, who pushed a plan to keep Trump in power, and Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was accused of participating in the breach of election equipment in Coffee County, turned themselves in on Tuesday.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has said it will release booking photos at 4pm each day, but Shafer appeared to post his on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, just after 7am on Wednesday with the message, “Good morning! #NewProfilePicture.”

While Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere are calling for Willis to be punished for indicting Trump, a group of Black pastors and community activists gathered outside the state Capitol in Atlanta to pray for and proclaim their support for the Democratic prosecutor.

Bishop Reginald Jackson, who leads Georgia’s African Methodist Episcopal churches, said that Willis is under attack “as a result of her courage and determination.”

AP

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