Former Justice Department Official Is Booked in Trump Georgia Case

Jeffrey B. Clark, the former high-ranking Justice Department official criminally charged in Georgia in connection with efforts to overturn Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election loss in that state, was booked at the Fulton County Jail early on Friday, a few hours after the former president’s dramatic booking at the same Atlanta facility.

Mr. Clark was one of five defendants in the case who turned themselves in at the jail after Mr. Trump did so at 7:35 p.m. Thursday, their appearances stretching well into the night.

The last two defendants in the case, Trevian C. Kutti and Steven C. Lee, surrendered on Friday morning. The Fulton County district attorney, Fani T. Willis, had set a deadline of noon for all 19 defendants to turn themselves in or face arrest.

All but one of the defendants negotiated bail agreements with prosecutors ahead of time and were released immediately after being processed at the jail. The one defendant who did not do so, Harrison Floyd, was still being held at the jail on Friday.

The next steps in the sprawling racketeering case were still in flux, as legal maneuvering by several of the 19 defendants began. Some were fighting to move their trials to federal court, while others were seeking to go to trial in state court as soon as possible.

Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, who is overseeing the case, granted one of the defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, a request for a speedy trial, setting the date for Oct. 23, over the objection’s of Mr. Trump’s lawyers. Prosecutors have described Mr. Chesebro, an appellate lawyer, as the architect of a scheme to have fake slates of pro-Trump electors cast votes for him representing states he actually lost.

Another of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Sidney Powell, has also filed court papers asking the judge for the earliest possible trial. Her lawyer, Brian Rafferty, declined to comment on the rationale for the request.

At the same time, Mr. Clark and four other defendants are seeking to have their cases shifted to federal court, a relatively uncommon step known as removal. Under federal law, state criminal prosecutions can be moved to federal court if the case involves federal officials acting “under color” of their office.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones rejected efforts by Mr. Clark and Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, to avoid having to be booked at the county jail while their requests to move their trials to federal court were pending. Hearings on their requests are scheduled for September.

Mr. Clark, a former assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, was released Friday on a $100,000 bond.

In addition to the state racketeering charge that all 19 defendants face, Mr. Clark faces a felony charge of criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings, based on a letter he wanted to send in December 2020 to state officials in Georgia falsely claiming that the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns” that would affect the state’s election results.

The last two defendants to surrender were involved in what the indictment describes as a conspiracy to intimidate a state election worker, Ruby Freeman, who was seen in a video that the Trump camp falsely claimed showed ballots being double-counted.

State officials quickly debunked the allegation, pointing out that election workers must re-scan ballots when a machine fails to read them the first time. Even so, Ms. Freeman and another poll worker were demonized and threatened by Trump supporters.

Prosecutors say Mr. Lee, a pastor from Illinois, traveled to Atlanta and knocked on Ms. Freeman’s door on Dec. 15, 2020, to try to persuade her to say publicly that there had been election fraud. Among the charges Mr. Lee faces is witness tampering. Jail records show he was booked and released on $75,000 bond.

Outside the jail, Mr. Lee’s lawyer, David Shestokas, told reporters his client had done nothing wrong. “People knock on doors all the time,” he said.

Ms. Kutti is a Chicago music publicist who prosecutors say traveled to Atlanta on Jan. 3, 2021, and put pressure on Ruby Freeman on Mr. Trump’s behalf, suggesting to Ms. Freeman that she was in danger, the indictment said.

Ms. Kutti surrendered on Friday morning and was booked and released on $75,000 bond, jail records showed.

Mr. Floyd, a political organizer from Rockville, Md., and the third defendant accused of harassing Ms. Freeman, did not negotiate a bail agreement with prosecutors and was held overnight at the jail. It remained unclear on Friday when he would appear for a bail hearing.

Mr. Floyd’s bail application may be complicated by a previous run-in with law enforcement. Court records show that Mr. Floyd, a former Marine and mixed martial arts fighter, was arrested in Maryland in February on charges that he assaulted two F.B.I. agents who went to his apartment to serve him with a grand jury subpoena.

According to an agent’s affidavit filed in May, Mr. Floyd ran into one of the agents in a stairwell, cursing and jabbing a finger at his face and chest-bumping him twice. He backed down only after the second agent opened his jacket and showed his holstered gun, the affidavit said.