Crime & Justice

Two accused in Trump Georgia election scandal surrender to police

Washington, Aug 22 (EFE).- Two of 18 allies of former United States President Donald Trump accused along with him of attempting to reverse the 2020 presidential elections results in Georgia turned themselves in to authorities Tuesday.

Scott Hall, charged with conspiring to illegally access voter information and vote counting machines, turned himself in at Fulton County Jail, according to the facility’s website.

The former president’s ally faces seven criminal charges, including one for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly used against mob bosses.

His bail is set at $10,000, according to prison records.

Lawyer John Eastman – considered the mastermind of the legal strategy Trump and his allies tried to employ to reverse the electoral result – turned himself in shortly after.

Eastman was released just over an hour after being arraigned. His bail was set at $100,000.

Meanwhile, other defendants along with the former president sought to have their trial transferred to federal courts, such as Jeffrey Clarke, a former Justice Department official, or David Shafer, former leader of the Georgia Republican Party.

Both followed the strategy of former Trump adviser Mark Meadows, who last week asked to transfer his case to a federal court, claiming the charges against him are related to his work as a government official, so they are outside the Fulton County jurisdiction.

Both Meadows and Clarke filed emergency requests to stay his arrest while they tried to transfer their case to federal court.

All defendants in the electoral fraud case in Georgia have until noon on Friday to surrender to the authorities, as special prosecutor Fani Willis said in charge.

Trump said Monday on social media he would appear Thursday in Fulton. He must post a $200,000 bail to avoid jail.

The former president was indicted last week on 13 counts by a Georgia grand jury for trying to rig the results of the 2020 election in the state, where incumbent Democrat Joe Biden won narrowly.

This is Trump’s fourth criminal indictment. Two weeks ago he was indicted in Washington D.C. on four counts for allegedly trying to reverse the result of the 2020 US elections and encouraging the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In New York he has been accused of 34 charges for alleged irregular payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he had an alleged affair in the past, to buy her silence during the 2016 election campaign.

His other criminal case is in Florida, where he is charged with 40 counts of illegally removing classified documents from the White House and keeping classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago mansion. EFE

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