Trump ally Rudy Giuliani arrested in Georgia, released on $150K bond in election interference case.
ATLANTA – Rudy Giuliani, a campaign lawyer for Donald Trump who was indicted with him in Georgia, surrendered Wednesday and was booked on 13 charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election.
"This indictment is a travesty," Giuliani said outside the Fulton County jail after he was booked, while city crew workers set up portable toilets for tomorrow when Trump's booking is expected to bring an even larger crowd. "It’s an attack not just on me, not just on President Trump, this is an attack on the American people."
Giuliani was released pending trial on $150,000 bond, of which he had to post 10%, and put on similar restrictions as others in the case, under an agreement negotiated by lawyers Brian Tevis and John Esposito. Esposito said he would represent Giuliani through the trial.
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Conditions include prohibitions against intimidating co-defendants or witnesses, and against communicating with co-defendants other than through their lawyers. Giuliani must check in with pretrial services every 30 days.
Giuliani said he spoke with Trump on Wednesday.
"I talked with the president today. I wished him well," Giuliani said. "I have every confidence in him. What they are doing to him is an assault on the American Constitution. And I say to my American citizens this could happen to you if you don't stop this. You have to stop this."
Giuliani, who is among 19 defendants in the case, is charged with racketeering, three counts of soliciting lawmakers to violate their oaths of office, three counts of making false statements and six conspiracy counts dealing with recruitment of fake electors.
Giuliani served as mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He also is a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted members of the mafia under a federal version of the racketeering statute under which he is charged. He told reporters before leaving New York he is fighting the case for the basic right to provide legal counsel.
Giuliani argued that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis violated his First Amendment right to advocate for grievances such as an election that was poorly conducted.
“This is an assault on our Constitution,” Giuliani said. “Fani Willis will go down in American history with having conducted one of the worst attacks on the American Constitution ever when this case is dismissed.”
Outside the Fulton County jail, a handful of protesters had dueling signs as they awaited Trump's co-defendants to turn themselves in Wednesday.
"They're persecuting the president," said Sharon Anderson, 67, who wore a mock baseball jersey with the number 45 and carried a flag supporting Trump. "They're using their office and political pull. Most of these people you'd never hear their names or see them in media."
On the other side of the block, 58-year-old Nadine Seiler, who came from Waldorf, Maryland, carried a sign cheering Trump's indictment. She said the former president needs to be held accountable."Our democracy is in peril," Seiler said. "These coup plotters were willing to steal our democracy to set up a wannabe dictator, and I'm not for it."
What charges does Giuliani face?
Giuliani was charged with making false claims of election fraud in three meetings with Georgia lawmakers during December 2020, including falsely claiming that mail-in ballots were incorrectly counted, that election workers were stealing votes and that felons and dead voters cast ballots, according to the indictment.
Giuliani called Georgia’s legislative leaders – Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller and House Speaker David Ralston – that December urging a special legislative session to replace presidential electors for President Joe Biden with those for Trump, according to the indictment.
He was charged with helping arrange for Republican presidential electors to meet and sign certificates to replace Biden electors.
Giuliani, who has argued he was simply representing Trump as a lawyer, said he and Trump and others would be proven innocent. Giuliani characterized the case as political.
“When the political winds shift, as they always do, let us pray that Republicans are more honest, more trustworthy and more American than these people in charge of this government,” Giuliani said. “Because if our government is conducted this way and the system of justice is politicized and criminalized for politics, your rights are in jeopardy, and your children’s.”
What was the scene like outside the jail?
Giuliani held an impromptu press briefing after being booked, political strategist Ted Goodman said.
There was one problem — he assembled the gaggle in the middle of the two-lane street leading up to the Fulton County Jail driveway that sheriff’s deputies had spent hours trying to keep clear.
Through much of the day as Donald Trump's co-defendants turned themselves in, officers had repeatedly warned protesters, journalists, and other onlookers not to block traffic and not to film or take photos on one side of Rice Street leading up to the facility.
One local resident was so fed up with the national spotlight going on in the area that he screamed at people to leave.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rudy Giuliani, arrested on election charges, surrenders in Georgia