The first two defendants in the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump and 18 other defendants have turned themselves in to face charges. Both men have been booked in the Fulton county jail, according to its online database.
Scott Hall, an Atlanta-area bail bondsman, was booked at the Rice Street jail on Tuesday. John Eastman, a Trump attorney and one of the main architect’s of Trump’s plan to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win, also voluntarily turned himself in later on Tuesday morning.
They were expected to undergo fingerprinting, submit personal information and potentially take a mugshot.
In a statement, Mr Eastman said: “My legal team and I will vigorously contest every count of the indictment [formal charge] in which I am named, and also every count in which others are named, for which my knowledge of the relevant facts, law, and constitutional provisions may prove helpful. I am confident that, when the law is faithfully applied in this proceeding, all of my co-defendants and I will be fully vindicated.”
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In December 2020, Mr Eastman helped orchestrate the plan for Georgia Republican electors to meet and sign a fraudulent certificate that said Mr Trump won the election in what is now known as the fake electors scheme. He also drafted a six-point memo that directed former vice-president Mike Pence to refuse to certify electoral votes on January 6th 2021.
Mr Eastman, alongside the Trump attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, spoke at a rally near the US Capitol on the day of the insurrection where he spread baseless claims of election fraud. Kenneth Chesebro, another Trump attorney who worked closely with Mr Eastman, Mr Trump and Mr Giuliani to halt the electoral certification and is a named defendant, was also at the Capitol that day.
Mr Hall was charged with seven felony [serious crime] counts, including six criminal conspiracy charges and with violating the Rico Act. His bond is set at $10,000, according to a “consent bond order” posted to the Fulton county court’s website on Monday.
Mr Eastman was charged with nine felony counts, including criminal conspiracy, solicitation, filing false documents and violating the Rico Act. Mr Eastman’s bond is set at $100,000.
After Mr Trump’s 2020 loss, Mr Hall illegally sought access to voting machines in Coffee county, Georgia, to search for evidence they were rigged. According to the indictment, he travelled to the Coffee county elections office to copy voter data from Dominion Voting Systems machines, which was a breach of privacy and unlawful.
He was charged alongside the Coffee county officials Misty Hampton and Cathy Latham, as well as Trump-aligned attorney Sidney Powell, for “wilfully and unlawfully tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines”, which was an act of conspiracy to commit election fraud.
Mr Hall also placed several phone calls to the individuals who were involved with intimidating Georgia poll workers to coerce false testimony about election security, according to the indictment.
The district attorney, Fani Willis, who delivered the sweeping indictment last week, has given all 19 defendants until noon this Friday, to voluntarily surrender.
Mr Trump, whose bond has been set at $200,000 and was charged with 13 felony counts, said he plans to turn himself in on Thursday.