Trump Georgia indictment latest news: Rudy Giuliani surrenders in Fulton County (2023)

Trump is expected to surrender Thursday at the Fulton County Jail, ahead of a deadline of noon Friday that Willis set for everyone charged in the indictment. Nine of the 19 defendants had turned themselves in as of late afternoon Wednesday.

“It is expected that the remaining 10 defendants named in the indictment will surrender by Friday,” the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Giuliani spoke to a throng of journalists after being booked and released on $150,000 bond. “I am very, very honored to be involved in this case because this case is a fight for our way of life. This indictment is a travesty,” he said.

“If they can do this to me, they can do this to you,” he said.

Giuliani earlier in the day had confirmed to reporters outside his Manhattan apartment that he was headed to Georgia “to comply with the law, as I always do.”

He also took the opportunity to claim the indictment was motivated by politics.

“I feel like I’m defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” he said. “People like to say I’m different. I’m the same Rudy Giuliani who took down the mafia, who made New York City the safest city in America, reduced crime more than any mayor in the history of any city anywhere. I’m fighting for justice. I have been from the first moment I represented Donald Trump. An innocent man.”

Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows have sought to move their cases to federal court. On Tuesday both asked a judge to issue emergency orders blocking prosecutors from seeking arrest warrants should they not surrender before Friday’s noon deadline.

U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones denied the request on Wednesday.

Prosecutors had told Jones that Clark and Meadows were seeking to circumvent regular criminal procedure by asking a judge to block state authorities from arresting them.

In response to Meadows’s request, prosecutors pointed out that another “former federal officer … the former president of the United States” had “agreed to voluntarily surrender to state authorities.”

“The hardship facing the defendant is no different than any other criminal defendant charged with a crime, including his co-defendants who have either already surrendered to Fulton County authorities or have agreed to so surrender in the time allotted by the district attorney,” that filing said.

In a similar filing in response to Clark’s motion, prosecutors accused Clark of seeking “to avoid the inconvenience and unpleasantness of being arrested or subject to the mandatory state criminal process.”

Attorneys for Clark were spotted at the Fulton County Courthouse on Wednesday before Jones’s ruling, heading toward the district attorney’s office. They declined to comment.

With a sudden burst of interest in what happens or could happen when Trump shows up to the Fulton County Jail on Thursday, one individual with direct knowledge of how it went for a different defendant in the case shared how things unfolded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive details.

Upon arrival at the jail this week, the defendant was asked to show their ID and then walked down a long corridor past crowded, glass-walled rooms filled with people who were waiting to post bail, this person said. The defendant was not required to enter any of those rooms.

The defendant was scanned for weapons, and then a jail employee read the charges aloud. When the employee read “racketeering,” she looked up at the defendant quizzically, suggesting it was not a charge she saw commonly, the person said.

The defendant’s fingerprints were then scanned electronically, but the sheriff’s staff did not ask for the individual’s height or weight, even though those numbers appear on the booking record. The defendant then was asked to sign some paperwork. After about 25 minutes, the process was over and the defendant was free to leave.

There has been much speculation about whether Trump’s booking record will show his height and weight, as the booking records for the other defendants who have already surrendered include that information (as noted above, a person familiar with one defendant’s booking process said that person was not asked to give their height and weight, but those numbers did appear on the booking record).

Trump is known to be sensitive about both statistics. When he was still in the White House, his official physician claimed he was 6’3” and 239 pounds, but numerous comparisons with other people suggested the numbers were not accurate.

The numbers may not be accurate in Fulton, either. For instance, the booking record says that David Shafer — the former Georgia GOP chairman charged in connection with his role as a contingent elector — is 5’5” and 150 pounds, with black hair and blue eyes.

Shafer, who declined to comment on his booking, appears taller than that, and he has gray hair and brown eyes, according to photographs and videos.

The Fulton County sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Four of Trump’s co-defendants turned themselves in to the Fulton County Jail late Tuesday or early Wednesday, according to online jail records. They include former state GOP chair David Shafer, former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham and lawyers Ray Smith and Ken Chesebro, who were indicted over their roles forming a plan to use false slates of Republican electors to keep Trump in office.

Two other defendants surrendered earlier Tuesday: John Eastman, a conservative lawyer and the legal architect of the alternate-electors scheme, and Scott Hall, the bail bondsman implicated in the breach of voting machines in Coffee County.

In addition to Giuliani, Sidney Powell — a former federal prosecutor who served on Trump’s post-election legal team — and Jenna Ellis, another member of that legal team, turned themselves in Wednesday afternoon, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.

Lawyers for Chesebro filed a motion in Fulton County Superior Court seeking a speedy trial. If approved by Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, that could mean Willis would have to begin presenting her case against all 19 defendants by early November.

Willis last week proposed a March trial date, acknowledging a crowded calendar of pending litigation against Trump. A person familiar with Willis’s thinking, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss it, said the district attorney’s office is ready to go to trial quickly.

Still, it would be unusual to move that fast in a complex case involving this many defendants.

Shafer, one of the state’s most influential Republicans as former Georgia GOP head, is proudly sporting his new mug shot.

Shafer has updated his avatar on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to his smiling mug shot. He announced the new photo in a tweet: “Good morning! #NewProfilePicture”

He was booked early Wednesday and quickly released, online jail records indicate.

“All of the charges, including the main RICO count, against Professor Eastman have to do with his advocacy as an attorney and as an intellectual on behalf of his client, which at that time was Donald Trump,” Eastman’s attorney Charles Burnham said on CNN.

Burnham confirmed that his client still believes the 2020 election was stolen, despite repeated audits and lawsuits.

Eastman on Tuesday became the first Trump adviser to be formally booked in the sprawling criminal racketeering case. He was quickly released on a $100,000 bond.

Security measures around the jail and along nearby streets have intensified in recent days. The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, which manages the jail and oversees security around the facility, warned of a “hard lockdown” ahead of Trump’s expected surrender Thursday, including for reporters who have staked out areas around the building in an attempt to spot and speak to Trump’s co-defendants as they report to jail ahead of Friday’s deadline.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has been meeting with lawyers for the various defendants this week to reach bond agreements. McAfee approved these bond agreements:

⋅ A $200,000 bond agreement for Trump that includes strict rules for his release, notably barring him from intimidating witnesses or co-defendants.

⋅ $100,000 bonds for former Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell. Powell was booked into jail Wednesday afternoon, according to online jail records.

⋅ $75,000 bonds for former Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer; for Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a pastor accused of harassing a Georgia election worker; and for Cathleen Latham, a Trump elector who was also charged for her alleged role in allowing voting machines to be breached by pro-Trump technicians in Coffee County, Ga.

⋅ $50,000 bonds for Georgia-based attorneys Robert Cheeley and Ray S. Smith III, along with former Trump campaign official Mike Roman.

⋅ $10,000 bonds for Scott Hall, a bail bondsman implicated in the alleged breach of election data; Misty Hampton, who led Coffee County’s elections during the 2020 election; and Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still (R), the finance chairman of the state GOP in 2020.

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat has told reporters that Trump and others charged in the case will be processed like any other arrestee — with fingerprints and a mug shot taken at the main county jail. It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s legal team asked for any special accommodations for him. By reaching a bond agreement ahead of time, Trump avoids an initial court appearance in the case. He is expected to appear at an arraignment hearing in the coming weeks.

“I WILL PROUDLY BE ARRESTED TOMORROW AFTERNOON IN GEORGIA,” Trump wrote Wednesday morning on Truth Social, his social media platform. “GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!”