Accused Conspirators in Georgia Surrender to Face Charges of Election Interference with Former President Donald Trump

Two people accused of conspiring with ex-President Donald Trump in the state of Georgia have turned themselves in to face charges of election interference.

John Eastman, one of 19 co-defendants named in the Georgia indictment, faces nine counts of racketeering and conspiracy.

Another defendant – Scott Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman – has also surrendered to local officials.

Mr Trump is expected to surrender on Thursday on the 13 charges against him.

The Fulton County district attorney’s office last week charged the former president and 18 allies with attempting to overturn his electoral defeat in the closely-contested state in 2020.

Prosecutors have set a deadline of Friday noon local time for each defendant to surrender and be booked into the local Rice Street jail.

Prosecutors consider Mr Eastman, 63, a key figure in the plot to meddle with the 2020 election results.

The California law professor represented the former president in a lawsuit trying to overturn election results in four states he lost in 2020.

In Georgia, he is alleged to be part of a plot to urge state senators to disregard the election results and appoint fake electors.

He has reached a $100 000 bond agreement with the Fulton County district attorney’s office.

In a statement today, Mr Eastman claimed that the Georgia case “targets attorneys for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients, something attorneys are ethically bound to provide”.

He promised to “vigorously contest every count of the indictment in which I am named, and also every count in which others are named”.

Eastman’s post-election actions are currently the focus of disciplinary proceedings by the State Bar of California and could see him lose his law license there. Hearings set for this week were delayed ahead of his surrender in Fulton County.