Trump is scheduled to turn himself into the Fulton County jail on Thursday on charges that he was one of the ringleaders in alleged criminal racketeering and conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and several other states.
The deadline for the remaining defendants to turn themselves in is noon Friday.
Clark will be required to turn himself in at the Fulton County jail after a judge denied his motion to halt the county proceedings. The indictment alleges that Clark solicited a U.S. attorney general and deputy attorney general to make false statements about significant concerns about the election’s outcome in December 2020. That was after Georgia election officials certified the presidential victory for President Joe Biden.
In response to Meadows’ request for removal, Judge Steve Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia wrote that the state prosecutors can proceed with the case despite the request for removal.
Meadows is alleged to have set up a Jan. 2, 2021, phone conversation in which Trump asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to tilt Georgia’s election in the outgoing president’s favor.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, strongly rebuked Meadows’ request that the case be moved from state court.
Willis argued in a legal filing on Wednesday that Meadows’ “baseless” request was an attempt to avoid arrest before the Friday deadline she set for the 19 defendants indicted last week.
“Despite his determination to characterize the pending indictment against him as anything but criminal, the defendant has not directed this court’s attention to any statute, case law, or other authority for his ‘civil-criminal hybrid’ theory of the criminal charges pending against him,” Willis said.
Ten others still awaiting booking, while Powell, Ellis appear
Ten defendants in the Fulton County election interference case are still due at the county jail this week, but Thursday will be all about one of them, former President Donald Trump.
Trump, who has agreed to a $200,000 bond, posted on Truth Social that he “will proudly be arrested” Thursday afternoon.
A rally is planned for him outside the jail Thursday morning, and some supporters – as well as his critics – were already standing alongside the road Wednesday despite the withering heat.
Sharon Anderson, an east Tennessee resident who says she sells eggs, canned goods and her own folk art to fund her Trump-related travel, stood at the entrance of the jail all day Wednesday to wave a “Trump 2024” flag she had tied to a fishing pole.
“Donald J. Trump fights every day. Fights endlessly, tirelessly, relentlessly for our country’s best benefit,” Anderson said. “This is the least I can do. As hot as it is out here, I can stand more. If he does what he does, I can be his cheerleader.”
Anderson, who is part of a group of supporters who normally travels together to attend rallies, said she plans to be there Thursday when Trump turns himself in, waving her flag.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a total of nine defendants had turned themselves in at the county jail this week. Trump’s former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was booked and released Wednesday afternoon after agreeing to a $150,000 bond.
Giuliani, who faces 13 counts, spoke briefly to a swarm of reporters gathered on Rice Street who shouted questions at the former New York City mayor in a frenzied rush that hinted at the circus to come Thursday.
Giuliani told reporters he spoke with Trump Wednesday.
“I have every confidence in him. What they are doing to him is an assault on the American constitution, and I say to my American citizens, this could happen to you if you don’t stop this,” he said before getting into a black SUV.
Two of Trump’s other attorneys, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, were also booked and released Wednesday. Powell, who faces seven charges, agreed to a $100,000 bond. Ellis faces two charges and agreed to a $100,000 bond. All told, seven defendants were booked Wednesday, and two surrendered Tuesday.
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