Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was among the seven co-defendants who turned themselves in at the Fulton County Jail Wednesday, ahead of former President Donald Trump’s announced surrender on Thursday.
Giuliani and Trump are among 19 defendants indicted in a 41-count, 98-page RICO indictment released last week.
“I am being indicted because I’m his lawyer,” Giuliani told reporters. “These allegations are completely false.”
Giuliani said he doesn’t plan to be there when Trump surrenders but did talk to him Wednesday and wished him well.
“I have every confidence in him. What they are doing to him, it’s an assault on the American Constitution,” he said.
Trump has said he plans to arrive to Atlanta on Thursday afternoon.
“I will proudly be arrested tomorrow afternoon in Georgia,” Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social, his social media site.
Attorneys John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Ray Smith; former GOP officials David Shafer and Cathy Latham; bondsman Scott Hall, along with Giuliani, have surrendered in the past two days after agreeing to bond with prosecutors at the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
Shafer, Latham, Chesebro and Smith surrendered Wednesday morning and were released hours later.
Powell and Giuliani and former Coffee County election supervisor Misty Hampton, negotiated bond agreements with prosecutors Wednesday. Powell, Ellis and Giuliani were booked and released from the jail Wednesday afternoon.
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Like his co-defendants, Trump is not expected to spend much time inside the facility. Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat has said the former president, would be treated like any other defendant, his mug shot and fingerprints taken at booking.
Trump is set to be released on a $200,000 bond that stipulates he can’t intimidate witnesses or other defendants. Security around the jail is expected to increased, with the sheriff’s office announcing a “hard lockdown” around the Rice Street jail.
Four defendants, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, had not agreed to bond as of Wednesday afternoon. Ten defendants, including Trump, had yet to surrender. The deadline is noon Friday.
Attorneys for Chesebro filed a motion demanding a speedy trial on Wednesday.
“State law, if requested by a defendant, sets a firm time limit in which to have a fair trial,” said attorney Scott Grubman, who is defending Chesebro with attorney Manny Arora. “Mr. Chesebro has given his official notice that he intends to avail himself of that right. Mr. Chesebro maintains his innocence and remains confident as the legal process continues.”
Scenes outside the jail
Some neighbors smiled and waved at the journalist and spectators lined up along Rice Street as they ventured out for their morning dog walks.
“We usually train our dogs in there,” one woman said, pointing to the fenced-in parking lot absolutely crammed full of news vans and reporters’ cars.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Members of local and international media waited, braving the heat for hours on end in the hopes of spotting some of the defendants coming or going throughout the day.
Most neighbors have been relatively cordial with the journalists in recent days, with some filming the growing media gaggle as they left for work or returned from running errands. Others made small talk or flashed smiles as they drive by. Only one seemed to lose his cool Wednesday afternoon, screaming at members of the media from his SUV.
“You morons! What are you doing,” the man asked as he drove past the reporters and flag-waving Trump supporters reporters lined up outside the jail. “Don’t you realize this a neighborhood? People live here!”
Patty and Rusty Bickford said they drove from Columbia, South Carolina for the previous night’s WNBA game, but swung by the jail to “see justice served.”
“If he did half of what they say he did, he’s guilty as a dog,” said Patty Bickford, a retired Lockheed Martin employee.
“It’s just fun watching history unfold, and being my age, I have seen so freaking much,” the 70-year-old said.
Nadine Seiler, a home organizer from Waldorf, Maryland, walked past the jail wearing a custom-made headband featuring a photo of DA Willis.
The cardboard placard on top read “Fani Willis Fan Club” and Seiler wore a shirt depicting Trump behind bars.
“I’m anxious that our democracy is in peril,” said Seiler, who arrived in Atlanta Wednesday morning. She said she also attended the former president’s previous arraignments in New York, Florida and Washington D.C.
The 58-year-old Trinidad native dubbed her travels the “Trump Indictment Tour 2023.”
Sharon Anderson, a retired Alabama sheriff’s deputy and school attendance clerk, traveled three hours from Etowah, Tennessee to show support for the former president.
“It’s just added to the list of the other witch hunts,” she said of Trump’s charges. “They’re politically persecuting him.”
