Mark Meadows surrenders at Atlanta jail on election charges

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows surrendered to authorities in Atlanta Thursday afternoon on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Meadows, 64, became the 10th of 19 co-defendants booked in the case as part of a 41-count indictment brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Aug. 14.

The former Republican congressman from North Carolina was released on $100,000 bond after posing for an unsmiling mugshot.

Meadows has sought to remove the case against him to federal court, but failed to persuade a federal judge to stay Willis’ order to surrender until his removal bid could be heard Monday.

Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark had also petitioned for the stay until his bid to remove the case to federal court could be heard.

US District Judge Steve Jones denied both requests on Wednesday, allowing the Atlanta proceedings to proceed until a federal court formally takes jurisdiction. Clark has yet to surrender to authorities.

Former Black Voices for Trump director Harrison Floyd also turned himself in shortly after Meadows’ booking on Thursday. He faces three counts and will remain in the Fulton County jail after having failed to negotiate a consent bond.

Floyd was charged earlier this year with assault on a federal officer after he allegedly twice struck an FBI agent “chest to chest” and then jabbed the agent’s face with his finger, according to an affidavit filed in Maryland federal court. 

The agent was attempting to serve Floyd, a former Marine and professional mixed martial arts fighter, a federal grand jury subpoena in Rockville, Md., on Feb. 23 when the alleged assault took place, per the document, which was unsealed in May. 

The subpoena was in relation to special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into alleged efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to the Washington Post. 

Meadows faces two counts in the indictment handed up by an Atlanta grand jury: violating Georgia’s anti-racketeering statute and soliciting a public official to violate their oath of office.

Nine other co-defendants — including Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis; GOP poll watcher Scott Hall; Coffee County GOP Chair Cathy Latham; Georgia lawyer Ray Smith; and former Georgia state Sen. David Shafer — surrendered earlier this week.

Giuliani, 79, previously served as a federal prosecutor who once brought cases under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a version of the very law he is charged with violating in Georgia.

He was charged on 13 counts and released on a $150,000 bond. Eastman, who is charged with seven counts, was released on $100,000 bond, along with Hall, Powell and Chesebro. Ellis was released on $100,000 and faces two counts.

Latham faces 11 counts and was released on a $75,000 bond. Shafer faces eight counts and agreed to a $75,000 bond. Smith faces 12 counts and negotiated a $50,000 bond.

Trump, 77, departed his Bedminster, N.J., golf resort shortly after Meadows’ booking and was expected to surrender to Fulton County authorities at 7:30 p.m. He will be released on a $200,000 bond.

The 45th president has been indicted twice since leaving office for his attempts to reverse his electoral loss to Joe Biden, partially through a scheme to set up fake electors in battleground states like Georgia.

In August, special counsel Jack Smith brought four federal counts against the former president for his attempts to overturn the election in Washington, DC. 

Smith’s office has also indicted Trump on 40 counts for allegedly retaining national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the former president with 34 counts of business fraud in March for having allegedly made “hush money” payments to a porn star before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a purported affair.

Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024, skipped out on the primary contest’s first debate Wednesday night, opting instead to sit for a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“231,000,000 Views, and still counting. The Biggest Video on Social Media, EVER, more than double the Super Bowl!” he posted on Truth Social about the decision on Thursday.

“But please excuse me, I have to start getting ready to head down to Atlanta, Georgia, where Murder and other Violent Crimes have reached levels never seen before, to get ARRESTED by a Radical Left, Lowlife District Attorney, Fani Willis, for A PERFECT PHONE CALL, and having the audacity to challenge a RIGGED & STOLEN ELECTION. THE EVIDENCE IS IRREFUTABLE! ARREST TIME: 7:30 P.M.”

In all, the former president faces 91 counts against him across two federal, one state and one municipal case. The charges add up to 712 years and six months in prison if he is convicted on all counts and receives the maximum sentence, though that outcome is highly unlikely.