Rudy Giuliani surrendered to Georgia authorities to be booked on charges that he conspired to keep former President Donald Trump in office after he lost the 2020 election, before calling the case a “travesty” in broadcast remarks.
(Bloomberg) — Rudy Giuliani surrendered to Georgia authorities to be booked on charges that he conspired to keep former President Donald Trump in office after he lost the 2020 election, before calling the case a “travesty” in broadcast remarks.
Giuliani, who represented Trump in failed legal challenges to the result of the election, agreed to post a $150,000 bond in the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Giuliani, Trump and 17 others were indicted last week for violating state racketeering laws by participating in the alleged scheme.
All the defendants face a Friday deadline to surrender to the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, and several have already done so. Most of the defendants — including Trump — have negotiated bond agreements to avoid being detained ahead of their arraignment hearings next month. Trump reached a $200,000 bond deal and said he’ll surrender to authorities in Atlanta Thursday.
“I’m being prosecuted for defending an American citizen,” Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York mayor, said in comments broadcast by CNN, referring to Trump. “That should tell you right away that this is a an assault on our Constitution.”
Giuliani added that Willis “will go down in American history” as having conducted “one of the worst attacks on the American Constitution.”
Read More: Trump to Surrender Aug. 24 for Booking in Georgia 2020 Case
Under the terms of his bond, Giuliani is prohibited from intimidating codefendants or witnesses or otherwise obstructing the administration of justice. He’s also barred from talking with codefendants or witnesses about the case, except through his lawyers. The bond deal will be void if he fails to turn himself in at the Fulton County jail by midday Friday.
Giuliani’s surrender comes at a time when he has said he’s running out of cash and that he has “limited financial resources.” He faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills and sanctions stemming from several recent lawsuits filed against him and his lawyers.
Giuliani also faces $90,000 in sanctions stemming from a defamation case, a $20,000 monthly bill to pay a company handling his electronic records, according to court documents. He also owes $15,000 a month to search files tied to a lawsuit and $57,000 in unpaid phone bills, his lawyers told a New York state court in a suit brought by Smartmatic Corp., one of the voting machine companies he accused of rigging the election.
His lawyers have also argued against financial penalties being imposed against Giuliani the New York case, saying he “does not have the funds.”
RICO Charges
The indictment is one of four criminal cases Trump is facing as he seeks to return to the White House in the 2024 election, including a similar election-fraud case brought in federal court in Washington by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Giuliani’s expected booking represents a remarkable development for the one-time prosecutor and former New York mayor, who became a vocal proponent of Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Like Trump, Giuliani faces charges brought under Georgia’s version of the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — a law Giuliani used to lock up mob bosses when he was a prosecutor. He’s accused of helping keep Trump in office after the election, by giving false testimony about voter fraud to Georgia lawmakers and falsely accusing Fulton County election workers of rigging the election results.
The case is The State of Georgia v. Trump, 2023SC188947, Superior Court of Fulton County, State of Georgia.
–With assistance from Maria Luiza Rabello and Patricia Hurtado.
(Updates with Giuliani’s broadcast comments and financial difficulties context.)
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