NEW YORK TIMES
Rudolph W. Giuliani turned himself in on Wednesday in the racketeering case against former President Donald J. Trump and his allies, surrendering at the Atlanta jail where the defendants are being booked.
Mr. Giuliani, whose bond was set at $150,000, arrived in Atlanta as another defendant in the sprawling case, the lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, filed a motion seeking a speedy trial. Under that scenario, which Georgia law allows, the trial for all 19 people indicted in the case would have to start no later than Nov. 3.
Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump face the most charges among those indicted in the sprawling case. A former mayor of New York, Mr. Giuliani served as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer in the aftermath of the 2020 election and played a leading role in advancing false claims that the election had been stolen from Mr. Trump.
Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City’s police commissioner during Mr. Giuliani’s tenure as mayor, planned to accompany him to the jail in Atlanta, two people with knowledge of Mr. Giuliani’s plans said. Mr. Kerik is not a defendant in the case. Also traveling with Mr. Giuliani, who arrived in Atlanta late Wednesday morning on a private plane, was John Esposito, a New York-based lawyer who is expected to take the lead in representing Mr. Giuliani, someone familiar with the arrangement said.
The former mayor’s lawyers plan to meet on Wednesday with the office of Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who is leading the investigation.
The bond for Mr. Trump, who plans to turn himself in on Thursday, has been set at $200,000.
“Based on the bonds that have been set, we would expect it to not be any higher than the president’s, but we’re going to negotiate that with the district attorney’s office,” said Brian Tevis, an Atlanta lawyer representing Mr. Giuliani.
Bond for another defendant, Sidney Powell, one of the most prominent lawyers who advanced false claims of vote fraud and advised Mr. Trump to fight his election loss, was set Wednesday at $100,000.
The case against Mr. Giuliani is a striking chapter in the recent annals of criminal justice. A former federal prosecutor who made a name for himself with racketeering cases, he now faces a racketeering charge himself.
“This is a ridiculous application of the racketeering statute,” he said last week after the indictment was issued.
Several of the defendants in the case have already made the trip to the Fulton County jail to be fingerprinted and have mug shots taken. They include Mr. Chesebro and John Eastman, the two architects of the plan to use fake electors to keep Mr. Trump in power after he lost the election to President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
David Shafer, a former head of the Republican Party in Georgia, has also turned himself in, as has Scott Hall, a pro-Trump Atlanta bail bondsman who was involved in a data breach at a rural Georgia elections office.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Trump — who is running for office again, leads the Republican presidential primary field and is skipping his party’s first debate on Wednesday night — sounded a defiant note on social media about his upcoming visit to the Atlanta jail, saying he would “proudly be arrested” Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Giuliani has struggled financially with mounting legal expenses, many of them related to his efforts to keep Mr. Trump in office for another term after the 2020 defeat. After repeated entreaties from people close to Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Trump plans to host a $100,000-per-person fund-raiser next month at his club in Bedminster, N.J., to aid the former mayor, according to a copy of the invitation.
While Mr. Trump’s traditional strategy throughout his many legal entanglements has been to slow things down, Mr. Chesebro’s filing for a speedy trial was the latest twist in the Atlanta case. Speedy trial demands are not unusual in Georgia. Ms. Willis’s office has been prepared for the possibility of a defendant requesting one, and it factored into her office’s decision to take its time in bringing an indictment after a two-and-a-half year investigation.
“State law, if requested by a defendant, sets a firm time limit in which to have a fair trial,” Mr. Chesebro’s lawyers, Scott Grubman and Manny Arora, said in a statement. “Mr. Chesebro has given his official notice that he intends to avail himself of that right. Mr. Chesebro maintains his innocence and remains confident as the legal process continues.”
Such a step would apply to all 19 people indicted in the case, but other defendants are seeking to move the trial to federal court or have said they will seek to sever their case from the other defendants, so the ultimate timing of the trial remains up in the air.
Three of the 19 defendants have filed to remove the case to federal court: Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official; Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff; and Mr. Shafer.
Mr. Clark and Mr. Meadows have also filed court papers seeking to block their arrest.
Some defendants were granted bond this week after their lawyers met with prosecutors in Atlanta. Mr. Trump’s bond agreement includes stipulations that he not intimidate witnesses or co-defendants, whether in social media posts or otherwise.
