Georgia election case: Trump, other 18 defendants surrender to authorities
Former President Trump was processed and released on bail.
Former President Donald Trump and the 18 other defendants charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia all surrendered to authorities at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.
Trump and 17 other defendants were processed and released on bail, with one defendant held without bond. Several defendants also mounted legal challenges to the DA's case.
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Former elections director Misty Hampton gets $10K bond
Judge Scott McAfee signed off on a $10,000 bond for Misty Hampton, the former elections director in Coffee County, who was one of the 19 defendants charged in the Fulton County RICO indictment.
Hampton was present in the county elections office on Jan. 7, 2021, when forensic experts from an Atlanta company were allowed to copy software and data from the county's election equipment, according to prosecutors.
Hampton's bail conditions include not communicating with witnesses and co-defendants, reporting to pretrial services by phone every month and not obstructing justice by intimidating witnesses.
Trump attorney Sidney Powell gets $100,000 bond
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set bond for Trump attorney Sidney Powell at $100,000.
Powell’s bail conditions include not communicating with witnesses and co-defendants, reporting to pretrial services by phone every month and not obstructing justice by intimidating witnesses.
Powell’s consent order marks the 13th bond package for a defendant so far.
According to prosecutors, Powell allegedly coordinated with an Atlanta company to obtain breached election data from Coffee County. She worked on Trump’s campaign after the 2020 election.
Giuliani: 'Your rights are in jeopardy'
Rudy Giuliani, who is facing 13 charges in connection with the effort to overturn election results in Georgia, spoke outside his apartment in New York City early Wednesday before heading to Fulton County to surrender.
"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," Giuliani said.
"The system of justice is politicized and criminalized for politics," he added. "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."
One-time Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani aided Trump in perpetrating a sweeping effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state, according to prosecutors in Fulton County, including by making false statements to state election officials and contributing to the harassment of two election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
Latham, Shafer also turn themselves in
Two more of former President Trump's co-defendants have surrendered to Fulton County authorities early Wednesday, according to online jail records: Cathy Latham and David Shafer.
Latham, the former GOP chair in Coffee County, is one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state.
Shafer, former Georgia Republican Party chair, is another of the fake Trump electors. He is also among the early defendants to seek to move the case into federal court.
-ABC News' Aaron Katersky
Willis opposes Meadows' motion to move case to federal court
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has responded to Mark Meadows' emergency motion to prevent his arrest and remove his case to federal court, arguing that the former Trump chief of staff's arguments are "baseless and in direct contravention with the requirements of the law."
"In essence, the defendant's emergency motion is a plea to this Court to prevent the defendant from being arrested on the charges lawfully brought by the State of Georgia," the response said, highlighting that Meadows had previously requested additional time to surrender on two occasions.
Willis argued that Meadows' removal motion only entitles him to an evidentiary hearing, which is already set for August 28; otherwise, criminal proceedings in the case, including his surrender, can continue as planned, the response said.
Meadows last week filed a motion to move his case on the basis of a federal law that he argued requires the removal of criminal proceedings brought in state court to the federal court system when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting "under color" of their office.
Among other allegations, the DA's indictment says Meadows traveled to Cobb County Center and "attempted to observe the signature match audit being performed by law enforcement officers and officials from the Georgia Secretary of State despite the fact that the process was not open to the public" and that he sent a text message to a state investigator on Dec. 27, 2020, asking if there was a way to "speed up" results ahead of Jan. 6, "in furtherance of the conspiracy."