Former President Donald J. Rudolph W. in the fraud case against Trump and his associates. Giuliani turned himself in Wednesday, surrendering at an Atlanta jail where the defendants were booked.
Bond set at $150,000 Mr. Giuliani came to Atlanta and attorney Kenneth Chesbro, another defendant in the broader case, filed a motion seeking a speedy trial. Under those circumstances, which Georgia law allows, the trial of the 19 defendants in the case would have to begin after Nov. 3, months earlier than prosecutors had requested.
After booking, the former mayor of New York, Mr. Giuliani, emerging from an SUV and addressing a crowd of reporters, called the case an “attack on the American people.” He then went to 2nd Chance Bail Bonds, a business near the jail.
Among the accused in this case, he and Mr. Trump also faces more charges. After the 2020 election Mr. Mr. Giuliani Served as Trump’s personal attorney and Mr.
Mr. Bernard Kerig, who served as New York City’s police commissioner during Giuliani’s tenure as mayor, accompanied him to a jail in Atlanta. Mr. Kerig was not a defendant in the case. Mr. who flew in a private plane to Atlanta. Traveling with Giuliani were John Esposito of the New York law firm Aidala, Bertuna and Cummins; He is Mr. He is expected to be the frontrunner to represent Giuliani, a person familiar with the arrangement said.
Attorneys for the former mayor met with the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fannie D. Willis, who is leading the investigation, ahead of the booking.
For another defendant, Sidney Powell, who made false claims of vote fraud, Mr. The attorney who advised Trump to fight his election loss was set at $100,000 on Wednesday.
He plans to withdraw himself on Thursday. These include conditions that he not intimidate witnesses or co-defendants through social media posts or otherwise.
Mr. The case against Giuliani is a significant episode in recent years of criminal justice. A former federal prosecutor who made a name for himself in fraud cases, he is now facing a fraud charge.
“This is a ridiculous application of the statute of frauds,” he said last week after the indictment was released.
Nearly half of the defendants in the case have already made trips to the Fulton County Jail where they were fingerprinted and mugshots taken. Among them Mr. These include Sesebro and John Eastman, who served as President Joseph R. After losing the election to Biden Jr., Mr. Mr.
David Shafer, the former chairman of the Republican Party of Georgia, has turned himself into Scott Hall, the pro-Trump Atlanta bail bondsman involved in a data breach at a rural Georgia elections office.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Trump — running for re-election, leading the Republican presidential primary field and skipping his party’s first debate Wednesday night — sounded a negative note on social media about his upcoming visit to Atlanta. He said Thursday afternoon that he would be “arrested with pride.”
Mr. Giuliani has struggled financially with mounting legal costs, many of them related to his efforts to keep Mr Trump in another term after his 2020 defeat. Mr. After repeated pleas from people close to Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Giuliani agreed to hold a $100,000-per-person fundraiser next month at his club in Bedminster, N.J., to help the former mayor, according to a copy of the invitation. Trump plans.
Mr. While his traditional strategy throughout Trump’s many legal troubles has been to slow things down, Mr. Cecepro’s filing for an expedited hearing is the latest twist in the Atlanta case. Expedited trial requests are not uncommon in Georgia. Ms. Willis’ office was prepared for the possibility that a defendant would plead one, and that factored into her office’s decision to bring an indictment after a two-and-a-half-year investigation.
“State law, if requested by a defendant, sets a definite deadline for a fair hearing,” Mr. Chesbro’s attorneys, Scott Grubman and Manny Arora, said in a statement. “Mr. Chesebro has given his official notice that he intends to exercise that right. Mr. Chesebro maintains his innocence and remains optimistic as the legal process continues.
Speedy trial applies to all 19 accused in the case. But some defendants said they are seeking to move their case to federal court or sever their case from other defendants, so the final timing of a trial or trial is up in the air.
The three defendants who filed to dismiss their lawsuit in federal court are Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official; Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff; and Mr. Shaffer.
Robert G. Rubin, a veteran Atlanta-area defense attorney, said defendants have a legal right to a speedy trial in Georgia.
“It’s not about what the judge grants and doesn’t grant,” he said. “If you file it on time, you have that right. And it affects not only you, but your co-defendants, because once a defendant files they’re under the same ticking clock.
Defense attorneys often file speedy trial requests if their client is waiting in jail without bond. In other cases, it may be a tactical maneuver to force prosecutors to go to trial before they are ready. But in this case, Mr. Chesebro is out on $100,000 bond. And Ms. Willis has had more than two and a half years to prepare her case.
Mr. Rubin, Mr. He said he respects the skills of Sesebro’s lawyers. “But I don’t know what good Mr. Chesbro is,” he said.
Mr Clarke and Mr Meadows have also filed court papers seeking to prevent their arrest.
On Wednesday, Ms. Mr. Willis’ office is seeking to dismiss the case in federal court. It called Meadows’ bid “unmerited” and called for Mr. Trump to avoid recusing himself by Friday. thwarted Clark’s efforts.
In 2020 Mr. Norman Eisen, the House Judiciary Committee’s special counsel during the first impeachment against Trump, said he doubted the impeachment effort would succeed.
“The removal was for official business, and what they did was beyond official jurisdiction,” he said, referring to the federal judge handling the question, Steve C. Jones has “already ordered a brisk presentation and hearing schedule. It’s an indicator that he’s going to bring things to a head, and quickly.”
Shane Goldmaker and Sean Keenan contributed reporting.
