Rudy ‘Tough on Crime’ Giuliani Arrested in Georgia
Rudy Giuliani has been arrested.
The former New York mayor and lawyer for Donald Trump surrendered to authorities in Georgia on Wednesday, following his indictment last week on 13 charges related to his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Giuliani’s bond was set at $150,000 after his legal team met with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis earlier on Wednesday.
Giuliani was one of 19 defendants listed on the indictment who were given a deadline of Friday at noon to turn themselves in to authorities. Trump announced earlier this week that he will surrender on Thursday, and noted on Wednesday that he’s quite happy about it. “NOBODY HAS EVER FOUGHT FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY LIKE PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” he wrote on Truth Social. “FOR DOING SO, I WILL PROUDLY BE ARRESTED TOMORROW AFTERNOON IN GEORGIA. GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!”
John Eastman, the lawyer behind the plot to stop the certification of the Electoral College, and Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who allegedly tried to break into voting machines, turned themselves in on Tuesday. David Shafer, the former chairman of the Georgia GOP and one of the fake electors; Cathy Latham, another fake elector; Ray Smith, a lawyer who help Trump contest the state’s results; Ken Chesebro, a lawyer who helped devise the fake elector scheme; Sidney Powell, a conspiracy-pushing Trump election lawyer, and Jenna Ellis, another Trump election lawyer, also surrendered on Wednesday.
There are a few defendants, however, who aren’t going so easily. Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, asked a federal court to block his arrest on Tuesday, citing his push to get the case moved out of Fulton County. Meadows has argued that he shouldn’t be charged in Fulton County because he was working as a federal official when he allegedly assisted in the effort to keep Trump in office. Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official Trump wanted to install as attorney general after the election, has also pushed back on the timing of the arrest, whining that he didn’t want to have to make “rushed travel arrangements” to make it to Atlanta in time to turn himself in.
Giuliani, on the other hand, has taken Trump’s approach of casting himself as a martyr. “I’m going to Georgia and I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I’m defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” he told reporters outside his New York City apartment on Wednesday. “The system of justice is politicized and criminalized for politics. Your rights are in jeopardy and your children’s. Donald Trump told you this. They weren’t just coming for him. Well, me. Now they’ve indicted people.”
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