Rudy Giuliani, the previous mayor of New York Metropolis and private lawyer to ex-United States President Donald Trump, has been booked at a Georgia jail on expenses associated to efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election outcomes.
![A mugshot of Rudy Giuliani with a seal for Fulton County's Sheriff in the background.](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Rudolph-Giuliani-1692826851.png?w=770&resize=770%2C770)
Giuliani flew from his house in New York Metropolis to Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday afternoon to give up to authorities at a Fulton County jail.
He, Trump and 17 different co-conspirators had been indicted final week on expenses they conspired to subvert the 2020 presidential election by pressuring native officers, making false statements and looking for to defraud the state, together with by tampering with voting machines.
However Giuliani struck a defiant observe earlier than as he ready to show himself in on Wednesday morning.
“I’m going to Georgia and I’m feeling very, excellent about it, as a result of I really feel like I’m defending the rights of all People,” Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, instructed reporters. “I’m telling the reality. They’re mendacity.”
As soon as at Fulton County, authorities ready an arrest document for Giuliani, taking his fingerprints and mugshots. After being booked, Giuliani was launched on a $150,000 bond — the second highest set for a defendant within the case, behind Trump’s.
All of the defendants within the Georgia indictment face a deadline of Friday at midday native time to give up to authorities. Trump is about to turn himself in on Thursday on the identical facility.
Legal professionals Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Ray Smith additionally surrendered on Wednesday, whereas former Georgia Republican Occasion leaders Cathy Latham and David Shafer had been booked in a single day, in line with authorities.
Trump’s former lawyer John Eastman and Republican ballot watcher Scott Corridor had been the first to surrender to authorities, arriving on the jail on Tuesday.
‘A mugshot for the mayor’
Giuliani was some of the distinguished public figures to push false claims that the 2020 presidential election was marred by malfeasance.
Trump misplaced the election to Democrat Joe Biden. However the Republican president and his allies nonetheless claimed fraud had robbed them of victory, notably in states like Georgia, the place the race was tight.
Giuliani pushed the “rigged election” narrative in public appearances throughout the nation, famously holding a shambolic press convention on the 4 Seasons Whole Landscaping firm outdoors Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the vote.
Within the sweeping 98-page indictment in Georgia, Giuliani was accused of constructing false statements about election fraud, in a failed bid to persuade state officers to approve an alternate slate of electors who would undermine the Electoral School certification course of and maintain Trump in energy.
As well as, Giuliani is accused of constructing false claims in authorized filings and pushing lies about voting machines within the state.
As with all of the defendants within the case, Giuliani was additionally charged underneath the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations regulation, also referred to as RICO. The regulation, often used in opposition to legal organisations and corruption, permits prosecutors to cost a number of individuals who commit separate crimes whereas working in direction of a typical purpose.
As a prosecutor early in his profession, Giuliani relied closely on the federal model of the RICO regulation to aggressively pursue New York Metropolis’s notorious crime households.
He hinted on the irony as he left his house on Wednesday to journey to Atlanta.
“I get photographed, isn’t that good? A mugshot for the mayor who in all probability put the worst legal of the twentieth century in jail,” he instructed reporters, with out specifying to whom he referred.
He has claimed the Georgia election indictment “violated folks’s First Modification proper” to free speech, claiming he and his co-defendants had been merely airing grievances about an election they believed to be “poorly carried out or falsely carried out”.
Ongoing authorized troubles for Trump
Trump can be the topic of three different indictments, turning into the primary US president, present or former, to face legal expenses.
The primary got here in April when Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg filed state-level expenses in opposition to Trump for allegedly falsifying enterprise information in a hush-money scheme as he ran for president in 2016.
Then, in June, Trump confronted his first federal indictment, associated to categorized paperwork he had allegedly taken from the White Home after his presidency and refused to return.
A second federal indictment got here earlier this month, additionally regarding his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential race. Federal prosecutors filed 4 felony expenses in that case, together with conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy in opposition to rights.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in all of the instances and has claimed the indictments are a part of an effort to derail his 2024 presidential marketing campaign. He’s presently the Republican frontrunner.