Giuliani turns himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges after bond is set at $150,000

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 favor of his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

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

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said that, if convicted, Giuliani will be sentenced to prison.

Giuliani has denied wrongdoing, arguing he had a right to raise questions about what he believed to be election fraud. He has called the indictment “an affront to American democracy” and an “out and out assault on the First Amendment.”

“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 as he left his apartment in New York on Wednesday, adding that he is “fighting for justice” and has been since he first started representing Trump.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

ATLANTA (AP) — Rudy Giuliani is expected to turn himself in at a jail in Atlanta on Wednesday on charges related to efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

The former New York mayor was indicted last week along with Trump and 17 others. 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.

Giuliani faces charges related to his work as a lawyer for Trump after the general election. At a meeting Wednesday with Willis’ team, Giuliani’s bond was set at $150,000, an attorney for Giuliani told The Associated Press. That’s higher than any of the defendants so far, except for Trump whose bond has been set at $200,000.

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 characterized the investigation as politically motivated and have heavily criticized Willis, a Democrat.

Giuliani criticized the indictment of lawyers who had worked for Trump and said the justice system was being politicized. 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 $100,000 bond was set Wednesday 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 $10,000.

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 early Wednesday morning. Also surrendering Wednesday were lawyers Ray Smith and Kenneth Chesebro, who prosecutors said helped organize 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 a breach of election equipment in Coffee County, turned themselves in Tuesday.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has said it will release booking photos at 4 p.m. each day, but Shafer appeared to post his on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, just after 7 a.m. 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 Wednesday 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.”

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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed reporting.

Kate Brumback, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Giuliani turns himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges after bond is set at $150,000

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