The first two of President Donald Trump's co-defendants surrendered at the Fulton County jail on Tuesday, setting the tone for how the defendants will be processed and how the case will progress.
John Eastman, a right-wing lawyer who advised Trump on plots to disrupt Congress' certification of the 2020 election results, turned himself in at the jail on Tuesday, shortly after Scott Hall, a bail bondsman in Atlanta.
They had signed a bond agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday. Hall was given an inmate identification number and released after spending roughly an hour at the jail on Tuesday.
Willis has charged Trump and 18 of co-defendants of participating in schemes to meddle with Georgia's election results.
All 19 defendants are expected to surrender ahead of a Friday deadline set by Willis when she unveiled last week's sweeping indictment over attempts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
Trump, who agreed to a $200,000 bond on Monday, said he plans to turn himself in on Thursday. His attorneys met with the district attorney's office on Monday before the bond package was finalized.
Eastman devised and promoted a six-step plan for Pence to overturn Biden's election victory while presiding over the Electoral College certification on January 6. He also urged Georgia state lawmakers to appoint fake GOP electors to replace the legitimate slate of Democratic electors. A bipartisan array of legal scholars have said Eastman's schemes were unconstitutional.
Eastman was also referenced, though not explicitly by name, as an unindicted co-conspirator in special counsel Jack Smith's federal election subversion case against Trump.
"I am here today to surrender to an indictment that should never have been brought," Eastman said in a statement Tuesday. "It represents a crossing of the Rubicon for our country, implicating the fundamental First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances."
