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Former President Donald Trump’s election lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, surrendered to authorities in Georgia Wednesday on charges related to their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
The charges are part of the ongoing investigation into Trump and his associates’ attempts to subvert the election outcome.
Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and the former mayor of New York City, was charged with 13 crimes, including violating the state’s racketeering act, engaging in various criminal conspiracies, and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath. Powell faces seven state charges, including violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, and more. Ellis was charged with two state crimes: violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering law and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.
The charges are part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s indictment of Trump and 18 others for their alleged involvement in schemes to interfere with Georgia’s election results. All 19 co-defendants were expected to surrender ahead of a Friday deadline set by Willis.
In addition to Giuliani, Powell, and Ellis, several other defendants have surrendered, including Kenneth Chesebro, who played a key role in the Trump campaign’s fake electors scheme; Ray Smith, a former Trump campaign lawyer who falsely alleged widespread fraud and voting irregularities in a Georgia Senate hearing; David Shafer, the former Georgia GOP chairman who led the state’s delegation of fake electors; Cathy Latham, former chair of the Coffee County Republican Party, who was linked to both the fake electors plot and a voter data breach scheme; John Eastman, a right-wing lawyer who advised Trump on plots to disrupt Congress’ certification of the election results; and Scott Hall, a bail bondsman in Atlanta.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official indicted for trying to use his federal law enforcement powers to overturn the election, attempted to avoid arrest and booking at the jail but were unsuccessful. A federal judge rejected their emergency requests and allowed state court proceedings to continue.
Meadows and Clark have argued that their positions in the federal government at the time of their alleged actions should lead to the dismissal of their state charges. Prosecutors have issued subpoenas to two individuals who listened in on Trump’s January 2021 call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of their efforts to counter Meadows’ bid to have the case dismissed.
