The latest on the Georgia 2020 election subversion case

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged former President Donald Trump and 18 others with participating in schemes to meddle with Georgia’s 2020 election results.

All 19 co-defendants must surrender ahead of a noon 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.

Here's what you should know:

• Key Trump lawyers turn themselves in: Three of Trump’s key election lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, surrendered Wednesday. 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. Powell, meanwhile, 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 was charged with two state crimes: violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering law and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.
• Others who have surrendered so far: Six other defendants have surrendered, including pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, former Trump campaign lawyer Ray Smith, former Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer, former chair of the Coffee County Republican Party Cathy Latham, right-wing lawyer John Eastman and bail bondsman Scott Hall.
• What we know so far about Trump's impending surrender: The former president will turn himself in Thursday after agreeing to a $200,000 bond. Trump will leave his Bedminster golf club in the afternoon and return to New Jersey following his surrender, according to sources. 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.
• Judge rules Meadows and Clark can’t avoid arrest: A federal judge on Wednesday 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.

Brian Tevis, an attorney representing Rudy Giuliani in Georgia, told CNN that it is “very premature to be saying what is the defense going to be” when asked if Giuliani would be using his status as a lawyer for former president Donald Trump as a defense in the Georgia election subversion case. 

Tevis, a Georgia attorney who represented Giuliani in bond and surrender negotiations with the Fulton County district attorney’s office, said he does not know if he will continue to represent the former mayor in the case.

“At this point, I was only involved in obtaining a bond and negotiating the surrender. I don’t know if I’ll be in the case going forward or not, that remains to be seen,” he told Kaitlan Collins.

When Collins asked Tevis if Giuliani is paying him for his work, he responded, “I don’t want to get into any attorney-client privilege or discussions about things that my client and I have discussed.”

He added, “I don’t discuss my clients’ finances or arrangements between us in any of my cases and this one’s no different.”

Tevis said he did not know who paid for the private plane that Giuliani flew on to Georgia Wednesday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Mark Meadows’ attempt to move her election subversion case to federal court should be rejected because the conduct in question was “political activity” outside of his official duties as former President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff.

“He has not shown how his participation in a RICO enterprise that conspired to overturn an election had any relationship to his official duties, much less how his participation in such an agreement was necessary for him to perform as a Chief of Staff,” Willis wrote, referring to the Georgia anti-racketeering law under which Willis has charged Meadows, Trump and 17 other co-defendants.

Willis sought to counter Meadows’ claim, made as part of his effort to move the charges against him to federal court, that he is immune from the state prosecution because the indictment targets conduct he was doing as an agent of the federal government.

Her office argued that the episodes involving him that were highlighted in last week’s grand jury indictment fit a pattern of him and other Trump White House officials ignoring a federal law, known as the Hatch Act, that prohibits the use of one’s federal office to engage in political activity.

Meadows’ “lack of care for the lawful scope of his official duties is a matter of record,” the district attorney told the court, and she said Meadows' own court filings in the removal dispute “makes no mention of the fact that every single one of the activities giving rise to his indictment constitutes impermissible political activity which a Chief of Staff may not lawfully perform ‘under color of office.’”

Willis’ filing, which was submitted ahead of a Monday hearing in Atlanta before US District Judge Steve Jones, is a preview of how she could fight against a similar effort by Trump, who is also expected to seek that the state court proceedings be moved to federal court. 

It also hints at the evidence she is assembling for Monday’s hearing, with references to House January 6 committee depositions given by top Trump White House aides who witnessed episodes involving Meadows that Willis contends were overt acts of the alleged RICO conspiracy.

Her office has also issued subpoenas for testimony at Monday’s hearing to two lawyers who were present on the Trump call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which is central to the allegations Fulton County prosecutors are making against the former White House chief of staff. 

A federal judge has rejected a bid by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to block Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from arresting him if he fails to turn himself in by the Friday noon deadline. 

US District Judge Steve Jones declined the emergency request by Meadows, who argued he should be allowed to avoid processing in the election subversion case ahead of a hearing scheduled Monday in his effort to move the charges against him to federal court. 

Jones wrote that “the clear statutory language for removing a criminal prosecution, does not support an injunction or temporary stay prohibiting District Attorney Willis’s enforcement or execution of the arrest warrant against Meadows.”

The broader efforts by Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to move their cases to federal court will continue.

All of the defendants in the Georgia election subversion case face a deadline of noon ET on Friday to surrender at the Fulton County jail.

A federal judge rejected an effort by former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to avoid arrest or having to surrender in the Fulton County 2020 election subversion case.

US District Judge Steve Jones denied the request by Clark, who asked for an emergency federal court order 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 District Attorney Fani Willis.

Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — both indicted in the Georgia election subversion case — surrendered to the Fulton County Jail on Wednesday.

A total of 19 defendants are facing charges stemming from efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Several defendants, including former President Donald Trump, have yet to turn themselves in. They have until noon ET on Friday to do so.

Former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was indicted in the Georgia election subversion case, has surrendered at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta.

District Attorney Fani Willis charged Ellis last week with two state crimes: violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering law and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.

Ellis planned hearings in 2020 before Georgia lawmakers where she and other Donald Trump allies pushed baseless fraud claims. She also wrote legal memos arguing Pence could block Joe Biden’s victory from being certified by Congress on January 6, 2021, though that isn’t part of the charges.

She is now supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican primary and recently bashed Trump’s decision not to participate in the first GOP primary debate.

Rudy Giuliani was treated and processed like “everybody else” who is booked at the local jail — a process that includes fingerprints and mugshots being taken, Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat told CNN.

The arrest, booking and release of Giuliani took less than an hour.

CNN previously reported that defendants in the election subversion case have been quickly ushered through the process, which typically stretches for multiple hours.

A total of 19 defendants in this case are facing charges stemming from efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

When asked if the booking process was expedited for Giuliani, Labat said it was the "same process as all 19."

Several defendants, including former President Donald Trump, have yet to turn themselves in. They have until noon ET on Friday to do so.

After emerging from jail, Giuliani told reporters: “I am very, very honored to be involved in this case because this case is a fight for our way of life.”

He went on to say that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis “will go down in American history as having conducted one of the worst attacks on the American Constitution ever when this case is dismissed.”

Giuliani visited a bail bonds agent afterward.

Ken Chesebro, the pro-Trump lawyer who devised the “fake electors” scheme, asked a Georgia judge Wednesday to throw out the charges against him in the Fulton County election subversion case. 

Motions like these are common at the start of a criminal case, and they are rarely successful.

The request came in procedural filing where Chesebro asserted many of the rights he has a criminal defendant – like the right to a speedy trial, and to receive “discovery” evidence from prosecutors.

Chesebro’s attorney said the indictment “fails to sufficiently set out the charge or any violation of the law” and lacks other essential details that are needed to move forward – and thus should be tossed.

The filing also asks Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to schedule a hearing so he can scrutinize what evidence the prosecutors will need to turn over as part of the discovery process.