Surrenders and threats of arrest ahead of Trump’s booking in Georgia

ATLANTA - As law enforcement officials began to prepare for Donald Trump’s expected surrender Thursday at the Fulton County Jail on charges he illegally conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss, two of the former president’s co-defendants turned themselves in while two others appealed to a federal judge for permission not to show up at all.

John Eastman, a conservative attorney and the legal architect of a plan to use false slates of Republican electors to keep Trump in office, reported to the jail Tuesday, becoming the first Trump adviser to be formally arrested in the sprawling criminal racketeering case alleging he, Trump and 17 others were part of a vast criminal enterprise to reverse Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia.

Eastman was formally booked and released on a $100,000 bond. Eastman’s arrest came shortly after the surrender of another co-defendant in the Georgia case — Scott Hall, a bail bondsman implicated in the alleged breach of election data in Coffee County, Ga., who was released on a $10,000 bond.

But as bail negotiations continued Tuesday for others charged in the Georgia election case, two other former Trump advisers asked a federal judge to block Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) from having them arrested as they seek to move their cases from state court into federal court.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark filed separate “emergency” motions asking U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones to stay the Fulton County case and allow them to ignore a deadline set by Willis to surrender by noon Friday until he rules on whether their cases can be moved out of state court.

Meadows’s motion, filed late Tuesday afternoon, included emails between Meadows’s legal team and Willis asking her to consider deferring Meadows’s “voluntary surrender” in the Georgia case to next week after a federal court hearing scheduled for Monday on Meadows’s request to move the case to federal court.

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Willis refused. “I am not granting any extensions,” Willis wrote in a email sent at 6:25 a.m. Tuesday, disclosed as part of Meadows’s motion. “I gave 2 weeks for people to surrender themselves to the court. Your client is no different than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction.”

The two-week window, Willis wrote, was a “tremendous courtesy.” “At 12:30 p.m. on Friday, I shall file warrants in the system,” she wrote.

Meadows’s attorneys pressed a judge to issue an order “prohibiting” Willis from “arresting or causing the arrest” of Meadows before Monday’s hearing. Clark’s attorneys made a similar request. Jones ordered Fulton County prosecutors to respond to the filings by Wednesday afternoon. Willis has also been ordered to respond to Meadows’s removal request by Wednesday.

Meadows petitioned last week to shift the case to federal court, arguing the conduct cited in the Georgia indictment relates to his duties as a federal official. Clark, a former Justice Department official who allegedly plotted ways of using the department to amplify Trump’s false claims of election fraud and replace slates of legitimate electors with Trump electors, filed a similar motion late Monday night. Both men have argued in court filings they cannot be prosecuted because they were performing duties related to their jobs as federal officials.

The legal maneuvering came as attention shifted to the surrender of Trump and his co-defendants at the jail, where security measures around the building and along nearby streets have intensified in recent days amid anticipation of the former president’s formal arrest.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, which manages the jail and oversees security around the facility, warned of a “hard lockdown” ahead of Trump’s expected surrender on Thursday, including for reporters who have staked out areas around the building in an attempt to spot and speak to Trump’s co-defendants as they report to jail ahead of Friday’s deadline.

On Monday, a judge approved a $200,000 bond agreement for Trump, who said on social media that he plans to travel to Atlanta on Thursday. The judge also approved bond agreements for several other defendants, including Eastman, who reported to the jail around 10 a.m. Tuesday and was released shortly after noon.

In a statement, Eastman said he surrendered in response to “an indictment that should never have been brought” and vowed to “vigorously” defend himself in court. He slammed the charges as an attempt to “criminalize” the right of individuals to seek advice from legal counsel and said the indictment “targets attorneys for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients.”

As Eastman left the jail, the lawyer, who is facing disbarment hearings in California over his alleged role in seeking to subvert the 2020 election, told reporters that he “absolutely” still believes the election was stolen. “No question in my mind,” Eastman said.

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Across town, bail negotiations continued inside the Fulton County Courthouse between the district attorney’s office and attorneys for those charged in the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, signed off on several agreements paving the way for co-defendants to surrender at the jail in coming days.

McAfee approved a $100,000 bond for former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis. A $10,000 bond was approved for Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still (R), who is facing charges related to his role as a Trump elector. A $75,000 bail agreement was reached for Cathleen Latham, a Trump elector who was also charged for her alleged role in the breach in Coffee County.

Former Trump campaign official Mike Roman, who was charged for his role in assisting the alternate elector plan, was issued a $50,000 bond agreement. Georgia attorney Robert Cheeley, who touted false claims of election fraud alongside former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani before the Georgia legislature, was also given a $50,000 bond.

McAfee approved a $75,000 bond agreement for former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer, who is facing charges for his role in the assembling of Trump electors. Late Monday, Shafer joined Meadows and Clark in filing to move his case to federal court, claiming his role as a Trump elector makes him a federal official.

Shafer has long contended that he and other electors were acting on the legal advice of Trump campaign attorneys who advised them to meet to protect Trump’s rights amid litigation over the Georgia results.

His federal filing included a transcript of the meeting of electors, in which Trump attorney Ray Smith — also charged in the Georgia case — is quoted addressing the electors before they signed documents falsely stating Trump won Georgia.

“We’re conducting this because the contest of the election in Georgia is ongoing,” Smith told the group, according to the transcript.

Among the eight charges Shafer faces in the case are three counts of making false statements and writings — including in April 2022, when prosecutors allege Shafer told an investigator in the case that “a court reporter was not present at the December 14, 2020, meeting of Trump presidential elector nominees.”