Attorney John Eastman faces Georgia 2020 election subversion case

ATLANTA (AP) — John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who pushed a plan to keep Donald Trump in power, turned himself in to authorities Tuesday on charges in the Georgia case of an illegal conspiracy to overturn the former president’s 2020 election defeat is accused.

Eastman was being held in the Fulton County Jail and is expected to be arraigned on the wide-ranging racketeering racket in the coming weeks.

He was indicted last week along with Trump and 17 others whom District Attorney Fani Willis accuses of plotting to subvert the will of Georgia voters in a desperate attempt to keep Joe Biden from the White House. It was the fourth criminal case against the Republican former president.

Trump, whose bail was set at $200,000 on Monday, said he would turn himself in to authorities in Fulton County on Thursday. His bail conditions prohibit him from intimidating co-defendants, witnesses or victims in the case, including on social media. He has in the past attacked the prosecutors who led the cases against him, including Willis.

Eastman said in a statement through his lawyers that he would surrender on Tuesday “to charges that should never have been brought.” He criticized the prosecution for targeting “lawyers for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients” and said each of the 19 defendants had the right to rely on the advice of lawyers and previous precedents to challenge the election results.

A former dean of Chapman University Law School in Southern California, Eastman was a close adviser to Trump in the lead-up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, by supporters of the president seeking to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory. He wrote a memo outlining what steps Vice President Mike Pence might take to stop the counting of electoral votes while presiding over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to keep Trump in office.

After the 2020 election, Eastman and others pushed to create a list of “alternative” voters who falsely certified that Trump had won and tried to pressure Pence to reject or delay the counting of legitimate electoral votes for Biden, a Democrat .

Bail bondsman Scott Hall, who was accused of participating in a theft of voting equipment in rural Coffee County, Georgia, also turned himself in to the Fulton County Jail on Tuesday.

Two other defendants, former Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark and former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, have filed papers to move the case to federal court. Willis has filed papers in Fulton County Superior Court, where the charges were filed, requesting a March 4 trial date. Legal maneuvers, such as an attempt to move the case to federal court, could make it difficult to begin a trial so soon.

Clark’s lawyers argued in their court filing Monday that he is a high-ranking Justice Department official and the actions described in the indictment “are directly related to his work at the Justice Department as well as to the former president of the United States.” Shafer’s lawyers argued that his conduct was “directly attributable to his service as a presidential candidate” and that his actions were “at the direction of the President and other federal officials.”

Clark’s lawyers also asked the federal court to suspend all proceedings in Fulton County Superior Court – including the execution of an arrest warrant – pending a decision on whether the case should be moved to federal court. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones gave Willis’ office until 3 p.m. Wednesday to respond.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made similar arguments in a federal court filing last week, saying his actions were in service of his role in the White House. A judge has scheduled a hearing in the case for Monday.

Meadows filed an emergency motion Tuesday to avoid having to report to the Fulton County Jail by Friday’s noon deadline. He asked the judge to ensure that outcome by immediately ruling that his case can be moved to federal court or by issuing an order prohibiting Willis from arresting him before Monday’s hearing.

Meadows’ motion says Willis rejected a request for an extension Tuesday morning. She said in an email that “I will be filing warrants into the system on Friday at 12:30 p.m.,” he said.

The judge ordered Willis’ team to respond to Meadows’ motion by 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Clark has been a staunch supporter of Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and submitted a draft letter to his colleagues in December 2020 urging Georgia officials to call a special session of the legislative session on the election results, according to testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives committee who investigated the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Clark wanted to send the letter, but Justice Department superiors refused.

Shafer was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certification falsely declaring that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election in the state and declaring themselves “duly elected and qualified” electors, even though Biden had won the state and a List of Democratic voters was confirmed.

Shafer was one of several defendants whose attorneys negotiated bail amounts with prosecutors on Tuesday. His bail was set at $75,000.

Bail was set at $100,000 for Jenna Ellis, an attorney who prosecutors say was involved in persuading state lawmakers to improperly appoint presidential electors. Bail was set at $50,000 for Michael Roman, a former White House aide who served as head of Trump’s Election Day operations and was involved in the effort to set up a series of fake voters after the 2020 election. Bail was set at $14,000 for Robert Cheeley, a lawyer accused of helping to organize the fake election rally at the Capitol in December 2020 and then lying about his knowledge to a special grand jury.

Bail was set at $10,000 for Shawn Still, another of the bogus voters who was elected to the Georgia State Senate in November 2022, representing a district in the Atlanta suburbs. Bail was set at $75,000 for Cathy Latham, another fake voter also accused of being involved in a theft of voting equipment in Coffee County.

Kate Brumback reports for The Associated Press.