Giuliani heads to Georgia as others surrender in Trump election subversion case

By Jack Queen

ATLANTA (Reuters) -Rudy Giuliani, who served as Donald Trump's personal lawyer, said he was traveling to Georgia on Wednesday to surrender over state criminal charges that he sought to overturn the former U.S. president's 2020 election loss.

Six other of Trump's co-defendants in the criminal case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accusing him and his associates of trying to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia already have surrendered at an Atlanta jail, according to county records.

Speaking in New York, Giuliani denied wrongdoing and defended Trump.

"I'm going to Georgia and I'm feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I'm defending the rights of all Americans," Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor, told reporters. "I'm telling the truth, they're lying."

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, was set to turn himself in on Thursday to face his fourth criminal indictment this year. The remaining 11 co-defendants named in the Georgia indictment have until Friday to surrender.

Trump has called his four indictments politically motivated.

Giuliani played a prominent public role in the Trump campaign's efforts to push false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

In Georgia, Giuliani was accused of making numerous false statements about election fraud, including to officials in other states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania, in a failed bid to convince them to approve an alternative slate of electors in the formal congressional certification of the election results to keep Trump in power.

Giuliani and other Trump allies were also accused of making false statements to Georgia lawmakers about the election.

Trump campaign attorney Kenneth Chesebro, indicted for allegedly helping to devise a plan to submit fake slates of electors for Trump to obstruct the congressional certification, turned himself in at the Fulton County sheriff's office on Wednesday, jail records showed.

Ray Smith, a lawyer who previously represented Trump in Georgia, also surrendered on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Trump's former lawyer John Eastman and Republican poll watcher Scott Hall surrendered while former Georgia Republican Party leaders Cathy Latham and David Shafer - were booked overnight, according to the jail.

Shafer, Trump's former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark have filed petitions to have their cases moved to federal court.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to two sets of federal criminal charges brought by Jack Smith, a special counsel named by Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, concerning the efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and his possession of classified documents after leaving office. Trump also pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan case involving hush money paid before the 2016 election to a porn star.

(Reporting by Jack Queen in Atlanta, Susan Heavey and Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone)