Former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell surrender in election subversion case
CNN
By Zachary Cohen, Paula Reid, Marshall Cohen and Dan Berman, CNN
(CNN) — Two of Donald Trump’s key election lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, surrendered Wednesday on charges in the Georgia election subversion case.
The scene of Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a notable former federal prosecutor, walking into the Fulton County jail is another amazing moment in the ongoing investigation into Trump and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
One of Trump’s most outspoken attorneys in 2020, Giuliani was charged with 13 crimes, including breaking the state’s racketeering act, engaging in various criminal conspiracies, and soliciting a public officer in the state to violate their oath.
Giuliani agreed to a $150,000 bond package after flying to Atlanta earlier Wednesday. Powell agreed to $100,000 bond.
Powell and Giuliani are among the figured in the alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia to turn themselves in Wednesday. Kenneth Chesebro, the architect of the Trump campaign’s fake electors plot, also surrendered.
The former president, meanwhile, will turn himself in on Thursday after agreeing to a $200,000 bond.
Trump will leave his Bedminster golf club in in the afternoon and return to New Jersey following his surrender. There are no expected events at his club upon his return. Trump’s team has also been making arrangements for him to speak to reporters traveling with him in Georgia, the sources said, though the former president may ultimately choose not to do so.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged Trump and 18 others of participating in schemes to meddle with Georgia’s election results. All 19 co-defendants are expected to surrender ahead of a Friday deadline set by Willis when she unveiled last week’s sweeping indictment over attempts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
Willis continues to meet with defendants and negotiate terms of a bond agreement.
Besides Giuliani and Powell, six defendants have so far surrendered ahead of the deadline:
- Kenneth Chesebro, the architect of the Trump campaign’s fake electors plot;
- Former Trump campaign lawyer Ray Smith, who participated in a Georgia Senate hearing where he falsely alleged widespread fraud and voting irregularities;
- Former Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer, who led the state’s delegation of fake electors;
- Cathy Latham, former chair of the Coffee County Republican Party, who is related to both the fake electors plot and a Coffee County voter data breach scheme;
- John Eastman, a right-wing lawyer who advised Trump on plots to disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results;
- Scott Hall, a bail bondsman in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official indicted after trying to use his federal law enforcement powers to overturn the election, have asked a federal judge to block them from being arrested by local authorities. Both men have argued their then-positions in the federal government when their alleged illegal actions took place warrant the dismissal of their state charges.
The Fulton County district attorney’s office issued subpoenas on Tuesday to two people who had listened in on Trump’s January 2021 call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, as prosecutors plan to counter Meadows’ bid to get the case tossed. Prosecutors requested for the two lawyers to appear in federal court Monday at a hearing in Meadows’ case – though the subpoena does not spell out why they are being called.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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CNN’s Jack Forrest, Jeremy Herb, Tierney Sneed, Zachary Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
