Former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis surrender in election subversion case

CNN

By Zachary Cohen, Paula Reid, Marshall Cohen and Dan Berman, CNN

(CNN) — Three of Donald Trump’s key election lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, 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 represented another remarkable 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.

He agreed to a $150,000 bond package after flying to Atlanta earlier Wednesday and to follow other rules that have similarly been imposed on his co-defendants in the case.

Asked whether the former mayor would use his status as a lawyer for Trump as a defense in the case, Brian Tevis, an attorney who represented Giuliani in his bond and surrender negotiations, told CNN it was “very premature” to define what the defense strategy would be.

Powell, who agreed to a $100,000 bond, faces seven state crimes, including violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, and more. And Ellis, who reached a $100,000 bail agreement, was charged with two state crimes: violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering law and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.

The three are among the figures 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.

Aside from Giuliani, Powell and Ellis, 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.

Also Wednesday, a federal judge rejected efforts by 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, to avoid arrest and booking at the jail.

US District Judge Steve Jones declined the emergency requests that would have put on pause the entirety of the state court proceedings – including efforts to arrest any of the case’s defendants – in the prosecution brought by Willis.

The broader efforts by Meadows and Clark to move their cases to federal court will continue.

The 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 headline and story have been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Jack Forrest, Jeremy Herb, Tierney Sneed, Zachary Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.