Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani speaks to reporters as he leaves his apartment building in New York, on Aug. 23.Seth Wenig/The Associated Press
Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani surrendered on Wednesday at a jail in Georgia’s Fulton County to face state charges arising from actions he was accused of taking to overturn the former U.S. president’s 2020 election loss.
Mr. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York mayor, was ordered to pay a US$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,” Mr. Giuliani told reporters after his jail appearance. “This is an assault on the Constitution.”
Seven other of Mr. 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 at the jail in Atlanta, according to county records.
Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden, continues to make false claims the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud. Mr. Giuliani played a prominent public role in the Trump campaign’s efforts to push the false claims of voting fraud.
Mr. 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.
Mr. Trump has called his four indictments politically motivated.
In the Georgia case, Mr. 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 Mr. Trump in power.
Mr. Giuliani and other Trump allies were also accused of making false statements to Georgia lawmakers about the election.
Attorney Sidney Powell, who played a leading role in promoting Mr. Trump’s false fraud claims, was booked at the jail on Wednesday, according to records posted on the country sheriff’s website.
Trump campaign attorney Kenneth Chesebro, indicted for allegedly helping to devise a plan to submit fake slates of electors for Mr. Trump to obstruct the congressional certification, also turned himself in at the Fulton County sheriff’s office on Wednesday, jail records showed.
Ray Smith, a lawyer who previously represented Mr. Trump in Georgia, also surrendered on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Mr. 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.
Mr. Shafer, Mr. 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.
Mr. 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. Mr. Trump also pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan case involving hush money paid before the 2016 election to a porn star.