Giuliani expected to surrender in Georgia on charges he was Trump’s chief co-conspirator in election plot – live | US politics

The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, delivered a sweeping indictment earlier this month that charges Donald Trump, along with more than a dozen co-defendants, with 41 counts including racketeering, conspiracy, solicitation and filing false statements.

These are the other defendants charged in the indictment, which alleges a coordinated group effort to pressure Georgia officials into changing the outcome of the 2020 election.

Kenneth Chesebro, the attorney who allegedly helped devise the fake elector scheme to subvert the 2020 presidential election, and Ray Smith, a Georgia lawyer who worked for Trump following the election, surrendered to Fulton county authorities today, according to jail records.

Chesebro has been revealed to be one of the main architects of the fake electors scheme, which he described as a “bold, controversial plan”. The New York Times obtained a copy of a memo from Chesebro to a Wisconsin attorney laying out a three-pronged plan to overturn election results in six states, including Georgia, and keep Donald Trump in power.

Smith is accused of advising the alternate GOP electors who met at the state capital and cast votes for Trump and signed documents that falsely claimed Trump had won the election. Following the November 2020 election, Smith sent a letter to Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and submitted several affidavits.

Six of the 18 co-defendants charged alongside Trump in the Georgia election subversion case have now surrendered.

Cathy Latham, the former chair of the Coffee county Republican party who is accused of being a fake elector, and former GOP chairman David Shafer, who is also accused of being a fake elector, surrendered and were booked at Fulton county jail early this morning.

Latham and Shafer, both of whom signed documents purporting to be valid 2020 presidential electors in Georgia, were released on bond, according to jail records. Shafter proceeded to share his mug shot on X, formerly known as Twitter:

In December 2020, Trump attorney John Eastman reportedly helped orchestrate the plan for Georgia Republican electors to meet and sign a fraudulent certificate that said Trump won the election in what is now known as the fake electors scheme.

Eastman also drafted a six-point memo that directed the former vice-president Mike Pence to refuse to certify electoral votes on 6 January 2021.

Eastman, alongside Rudy Giuliani, spoke at a rally near the US Capitol on the day of the insurrection where he spread baseless claims of election fraud. Kenneth Chesebro, another Trump attorney who worked closely with Eastman, Trump and Giuliani to halt the electoral certification and is a named defendant, was also at the Capitol that day.

After Trump’s 2020 loss, bail bondsman Scott Hall allegedly sought illegal access to voting machines in Coffee county, Georgia, to search for evidence they were rigged.

According to the indictment, he allegedly traveled to the Coffee county elections office to copy voter data from Dominion Voting Systems machines, which was a breach of privacy and unlawful.

Hall was charged alongside the Coffee county officials Misty Hampton and Cathy Latham, as well as Trump-aligned attorney Sidney Powell, for “willfully and unlawfully tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines”, which was an act of conspiracy to commit election fraud.

Hall also placed several phone calls to the individuals who were involved with intimidating Georgia poll workers to allegedly coerce false testimony about election security, according to the indictment.

Fulton county officials released the first two booking photos of defendants in the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump and allies.

John Eastman, who is alleged to have orchestrated the so-called fake elector plot that aimed to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election, surrendered to authorities in Georgia on Tuesday.

Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who is accused of a voting system breach in Georgia’s Coffee county, was also booked in on Tuesday.

Donald Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening on racketeering and conspiracy charges over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Trump has posted on his Truth Social platform that he would be arrested on Thursday, but the prime-time scheduling was finalized in recent days after his lawyers met with the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, at her office on Monday.

The surrender itself is expected to be mundane. At the Rice Street jail north-west of downtown Atlanta, where defendants charged in Fulton county are typically taken, the booking process involves a mug shot, fingerprinting and having height and weight recorded.

Trump asked his lawyers and the US secret service to get him an exemption from being photographed, the people said, though it was not clear whether he will get special treatment. The Fulton county sheriff, Patrick Labat, has previously said Trump would be treated no differently.

The other 18 co-defendants in the 2020 election subversion case appear to be receiving regular treatment based on online jail records for the former Trump election lawyer John Eastman and others, who had their height, weight and personal appearance made public.

Once the booking is complete, Trump is expected to be released immediately on conditions that include stringent witness intimidation restrictions that have not been put in place for his co-defendants, court filings show, until he is due back in state court for arraignment.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. The New York mayor turned Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Wednesday on charges he acted as Donald Trump’s chief co-conspirator in a plot to subvert the 2020 presidential election, according to reports.

Sources told CNN that Giuliani wants to get it all done before Trump comes to Georgia. The former president is expected to turn himself in on Thursday evening, the Guardian reported on Tuesday. Giuliani is expected to travel to the state with former New York police commissioner Bernie Kerik who has been working to help the former mayor find a Georgia lawyer to represent him in this case.

Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has set a deadline of noon on Friday for Trump and his 18 co-defendants to turn themselves in on charges that they acted together as a “criminal organisation” as part of a vast conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Several have already voluntarily turned themselves in – on Tuesday, Scott Hall, an Atlanta-area bail bondsman, and John Eastman, a Trump attorney and allegedly one of the main architects of Trump’s plan to halt the certification of Biden’s victory, were booked in at the Rice Street jail. Trump “electors” David Shafer and Cathy Latham also surrendered early Wednesday, according to court records.

Here’s what else we’re watching today:

Eight Republican presidential hopefuls will gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, tonight to take part in the first 2024 Republican primary debate.

The eight candidates scheduled to appear are: Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis, the former vice-president Mike Pence, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, North Dakota’s governor Doug Burgum, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, business entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and South Carolina senator Tim Scott.

The debate begins at 9pm Eastern time. We will be following it live on this blog.