Donald Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, on Wednesday (23/8), turned himself in to a penitentiary in Atlanta, over charges against him in attempting to undo Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss in the state of Georgia.
The former New York mayor was indicted last week along with Trump and 17 other people. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said the defendants had participated in a sprawling conspiracy to overturn the will of voters after the Republican president lost to Joe Biden in the November 2020 presidential election.
Guarantees of US$150,000 were set for Giuliani. The amount is the second largest after bail set for Trump, which is US$200,000.
Giuliani, who is 79 years old, is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to force state lawmakers in Georgia and other states that are closely contested in the 2020 presidential election, to ignore the will of the electorate and illegally appoint electoral college voters in Trump’s favour.
Georgia is one of several key states where Trump lost by a narrow margin, prompting Republicans and their allies to claim – without evidence – that the election was rigged in Joe Biden’s favor.
Giuliani was charged with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to produce fake documents, and asking state lawmakers to break their oath of office to designate an alternative list of pro-Trump voters.
Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, has said he plans to turn himself in to the Fulton County Jail on Thursday (24/8). He and his allies have characterized the investigation as politically motivated and have harshly criticized District Attorney Fani Willis, who is a member of the Democratic Party.
Giuliani criticized the charges against lawyers other than himself who had worked for Trump and said the justice system had been politicized. He also highlighted the fact that some of the people charged were not high-profile names.
“Donald Trump has already said this: They’re not just coming for him or me,” Giuliani said. “Now they have charged people in this case who I don’t even know who they are. They are just ordinary people making a living.”
Willis has set a deadline of Friday afternoon for those charged last week in the attempt to overturn the election results to turn themselves in. (em/hr)
