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extraordinary developments in fulton county, georgia. the first of former president trump's co-defendants are beginning to surrender at the county jail and we're getting legal strategies moving forward. the stage is set. eight candidates had to fight for their political future without the front runner in attendance. just because he's off the stage does not mean he won't be a big focus of the battle. and student loan forgiveness take two after the supreme court dealt a major blow to president biden's plan. his administration rolling out a new plan. does this pass legal muster? we're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in to cnn news central. we are tracking some fast-moving developments out of atlanta tied to the 2020

election interference indictment against former president trump and 18 of his allies. this morning, two co-defendants turned themselves in at the fulton county jail. two filed to get the case kicked over to federal court and defense lawyers for a host of others have been shuffling in and out of the courthouse for meetings with d.a. fani willis's team. looming over all that activity is the biggest surrender of all, that of course, by the former president. trump said he will turnly. in on thursday and this will be his fourth time being booked on criminal charges. cnn's zachary cohen is posted outside the jail where all of this is going to be happening. zach, wasn't trump but we did see a high-profile defendant surrender today. tell us about this. >> reporter: conservative attorney john eastman is really described in the indictment from fani willis as one of the architects of the broader effort to overturn the 2020 election. today, he surrendered to the jail behind me and was treated

like any other defendant who would come to surrender themselves after being charged with potential crimes. eastman does maintain that he did nothing wrong. that he was simply acting as trump's attorney. that he was giving advice to trump based on his role as legal counsel. listen to what he told reporters after being processed at the jail. >> it represents a crossing of the rubikon in our country. to ask for redress of grievances. as troubling, it targets attorneys for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients. something attorneys are ethically bound to provide and which was attempted here by formally challenging the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means. an opportunity never afforded them or their clients in the fulton county spuperior court. >> reporter: so while eastman

was inside the jail behind me, he was fingerprinted, he was searched and he took a mug shot like any other defendant would according to his lawyer. eastman came out and talked to reporters and said he absolutely believes the 2020 election was stolen. of course, he did not provide any evidence to support that claim. it does show you where john eastman's head is at and sort of how the window into how these defendants are being treated, when they turned themselves in to the fulton county jail after facing criminal charges. >> can you tell us anything about the process? this is a little different, obviously, going to a jail. what is it like? >> reporter: yeah, in a lot of ways it's similar to like anybody else who would turn themselves in or surrender to a jail. eastman was fimngerprinted, he took a mugshot like anyone else would. as to when trump is expected to arrive on thursday, whether he will do the same. we're in uncharted waters a

little bit. a former president has not had to surrender himself to the fulton county jail. so far the two that have surrendered have been treated like any other defendant in any other criminal case. >> we shall see. it will be extraordinary, if that's the case. zach cohen live for us from the fulton county jail. we want to take you a few minutes down the road to the courthouse in atlanta with kaitlyn. negotiations have been going on all day behind closed doors, behind you. walk us through the agreements that have been hashed out. >> reporter: at this point we have seen about half the people that are charged in this case have some sort of negotiations with the prosecutors. we're starting to see how the bonds are being set for each of these defendants, and they're essentially two groups. there are the groups that are getting six-figure bonds and there's the group that is getting lower bond amounts. the group with the six-figure

bonds, $200,000, $100,000 bonds, those are the people that were at the top of the campaign or the top of the legal pyramid working around donald trump after the election. the people who are accused of being really at the center of the fulcrum of this racketeering charge, the sort of allegations that say that these were the people pooling things get to try to block the election results. to stop is the georgia popular vote from being solidified and trying to stop congress from allowing joe biden to take the presidency, which he had rightfully won. so when we're looking at these, we have seen about six different people. either their attorneys have come in or we've gotten their bond negotiation paperwork to look at. and those people are representative of other aspects of this investigation. it is not just the people at the top. pyramid. it is people, a man accused of intimidating ruby freeman, the

election worker in georgia. his attorneys are meeting with prosecutors today to negotiate that beyond. they also have their agreements coming in. fake electors in georgia have had their bond agreements. so as we see all of these get solidified here at the courthouse with the district attorney's office and judges sign off, then those people can head to the jail and be arrested to move forward on this case. >> and as you've been delivering the details of those deals, we actually learned, just into cnn, that extrump campaign attorney jenna ellis reached an agreement for $100,000 bail. we're seeing, i believe, video of her either entering or exiting, her attorneys entering or exiting the courthouse now. she's obviously been charged with one count of violating georgia's rico act. she has a history of defending

the former president and now she's agreed to a bond deal worth $100,000. >> reporter: the thing to float about that, some of these defendants, this is how i was speaking about two different classes of defendants, essentially, and the way these bond agreements are set up. jenna ellis would be one of the top people around trump and is charged with fewer crimes. the allegations are in the racketeering case against her and others. she is central to much of those efforts. so even if she has fewer felony charges that she's going to be facing, pleading not guilty to very likely, and trying to contest in court, she's in a different space getting $100,000 bond, compared to others today who are getting $50,000 or $75,000, who may be charged on the books with more federal, or i'm sorry, with more state crimes at this point in time. >> kaitlyn polantz, thank you. this is a significant development. jenna ellis playing a major role

in trying to overturn the i two 20 election, at least publicly. >> that's right. and she has resorted to crowd funding to pay her mounting legal fees. she's publicly questioned why trump and list super pac that he formed are not helping her out. have a listen. >> so far, president trump and the campaign have not given me anything for my legal defense. i have also not personally asked him. i have not asked the campaign. i don't know what if any he has given, or the campaign has given to other attorneys or other people who have been attacked through this. >> cnn reporter marshall cohen joins me now. a sad fact is, for many of the folks who participated in this and are now facing criminal charges, they're not getting help from the former president, although he has raised many tens of millions of dollars to cover his own legal fees. >> they'll have to fend for themselves. most of the key players in this

georgia indictment, it appears. as you mentioned, jenna ellis was a trump campaign attorney who presented bogus debunked claims of voter fraud to state lawmakers in georgia in 2020. that's why she's facing charges now. you just heard her comments earlier this morning saying that the cavalry is not coming. she's not expecting any money from former president trump or his little groups. i can think of one good reason why she's not on the trump team anymore. she's supporting ron desantis in the 2024 presidential race. she's even been mocking donald trump for skipping the debate tomorrow night. so she's not on his side anymore and clearly, he's not on her side. >> there are some that the president puts on his side, or at least his side of the ledger, in terms of who he is paying for. who gets the money and who doesn't? >> we have seen in some of the other cases that donald trump is facing, like the mar-a-lago trial down in florida. his group is funding the lawyers

for list co-defendants. his bodman walt nauta and carlos de oliveira, their fees are being paid for by trump. when it comes to some of the other players, the many of the lower level players, they'll have to defend for themselves. so far she's done a pretty good job. she has raised almost $100,000 on that crowd funding website so far. >> interesting. a start. marshall cohen, thanks so much. brianna? we do have more breaking news right now into cnn. lawyers for cathy latham who allegedly acted as one of the fake electors in georgia, among other actors she is alleged to have taken, has struck a $75,000 bond agreement with prosecutors. i want to bring in kaitlyn polantz for the very latest on this. $75,000. tell us what cathy latham's alleged role was in this.

it's very interesting. >> reporter: cathy latham has a two-part role here. in she was a fake elector for donald trump after the election, and also, in coffee county, georgia, the rural area outside atlanta where different people in the republican party were interested and people in the elections office were interested in getting some sort of access to vote tabulating machines, and sidney powell, the lawyer working for trump after the election, she was one of the central figures around this and is accused in taking part in that scheme as well. cathy latham is an important figure because she's politically connected in georgia. so that's another theme we're seeing here as the defendants and their lawyers come in one by one. these are people who are known and involved in republican politics in this state that are involved in elections in this state, and are often, some of them are quite well known in

their communities, having large roles, as elected officials or just civic leaders of different stripes. so cathy latham is one of those people who is getting a bond of $75,000 at this time. has not been over to the jail yet to be arrested that we know of. she is accused of crimes here in this racketeering case against the former president to try and overturn the result of the popular vote here in georgia as part of a scheme for trump to hold on to the presidency after the election. >> so she, kaitlyn, has said she was not personally involved in the breach of voter data there in coffee county where she was the former chair of the gop. but she can be seen in surveillance video. can you tell us what she appears to be seen doing there? >> reporter: i believe so. i believe she's in surveillance video that is captured inside of this election office. but one of the things in this

case is that we don't see the evidence just yet. if there are things in the public complain that we have seen out there, like video of an elections office like that, from previously, that is not necessarily spelled out in the charges from the georgia prosecutors at this time. we would need to wait for trial to see exactly how this will factor into the case. but i'm looking right now at one of the counts for cathy latham. there are several related to computer crimes invasion of privacy. some other computer-breach-related crimes. they are quite serious and they raise quite a bit of alarm because it is a question of whether people were accessing protected machines for voters in a county in georgia who were not supposed to, or who were not authorized to, even if there were elected officials or people working in elections in some way. >> we're showing some of the surveillance video. it is such a good point you make there. and look, this is someone who isn't a household name,

necessarily after all of this, but obviously, someone in this case who may have played a very significant role, and obviously, a lot of this is to be seen, what comes out in this case. kaitlyn poleants live for us from atlanta, thank you. joining us to discuss, he was counsel in former president trump's first impeachment trial and a law professor at georgia state university. first off, let's react, norm, if you will, to what we have just learned about this deal being struck here. $75,000 when it comes to cathy latham. there is someone else involved in this alleged breach and they did not strike a deal where it was $75,000. it was $10,000. what does that tell you about her involvement? >> cathy latham was involved in multiple dimensions because she was one of the alleged false

electors. part of the thing that is week in fani willis's case, unlike jack smith with his focus on trump, fani willis explains this reached down into the states. you couldn't have had this alleged conspiracy without state republican officials like cathy latham who signed the counterfeit documents. but that wasn't her only role. she's also involved in the breach, allegedly, of those voting machines. a variety of georgia statutes that have been charged in the indictment in the nature of computer trespass or hacking for going into these voting machines. again, to try to prove a baseless conspiracy. so she's in the medium to high range. we have trump, $200,000. we have the legal alleged ring leaders, clark, or rarkth

eastman and cheseboro. they are at the $100,000 range. she's below that. but certainly much more than some of the lower level officials. >> and clark, we saw john eastman today, a very central figure here. one person turning himself in ahead of this deadline. he sent a statement through his lawyers in what he is basically arguing here is that he was just doing his job. that he was ethically bound to challenge the results of the election. ethically bound to zealously provide services on behalf of his client. what do you make of that defense? >> i don't think it is a good defense at all. what we're seeing, he said the head of the, he is at the led of the fake elector scheme which is the most dangerous part of the rico conspiracy alleged by the district attorney. and you know, it appears that eastman was involved in getting these electoral certificates from georgia else and where

under false pretenses. he was part of a scheme to tell these electors that these altered electoral certificates would only be used if trump won a lawsuit. that was false. that's not what happened. he and others were lying to these electors, and in fact, they got these certificates under false pretenses and then used them to present to the vice president in an effort to prevent biden from being cert certified as president. that's nothing to do with free speech or being a zealous advocate for your client. >> it was his privilege, actually, that was one of the first, i think the first to be pierced when it came to, hey, is what you're doing for your client actually lawyering or is it something illegal? he spoke to reporters. we saw this video after his release from jail today. he said he still believes the election was stolen, as i believe many of these alleged co-conspirators do. what do you think about that and

how that works toward his defense? >> i think it is going to be an extremely unlikely to succeed factual defense before a judge and a jury here. authority after authority have found that the election was not stolen. that is not something that can be substantiated at all. and eastman continuing to language on to that after there's so much evidence that it is false is just not going to avail him. it is as bad as his legal arguments. he's claiming slou legally, the vice president, his arguments, he had the power to suspend congress or recognize the electors of the loser or send it back to state legislatures to recognize the electors who lost the election? it won't work legally. it won't work factually.

>> and co-defendant david shafer, he said in a court filing that he and the other fake electors quote, acted at the direction of former president trump while also arguing his case should move to federal court. you have mark meadows and jeffrey clark, bigger fish here, they're also trying to move their cases to federal court. what do you make of these arguments? >> i think what shafer filed, i think it was today to get his case moved to federal court, could be devastating for the former president. he explicitly places the entire responsibility for the fake electoral thing squarely on donald trump. he says, i was acting at his personal direction. he does that because the only, he's trying to get into federal court under a law that says even if you're not an officer of the united states, if you are acting under the officer's direction, you can get to federal court.

he is making that statement to get to federal court. at the same time, implicating trump directly in the fake elector scheme. there is a very important development in the case. >> we will keep our eye on it. thank you both. so on this very -- >> privileged to be with you. >> thank you, sir. so. boris? coming up, we'll bring you more details on the threats the fulton county sheriff's office is facing ahead of trump's surrender. plus, debate day eve. we'll break down the strategy for these eight 2024 republican hopefuls. how they keep attention on the stage and not on the elephant not in the room. and later, the biden administration officially rolling out a new student loan program. we'll see if it passes legal muster. those stories coming up.

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first republican debate of 2024 tomorrow night, fox news has just informed his campaign that in turn, they will not provide credentials for at least some trump surrogates who had planned to be in the debate spin room before and after the debate. others will be allowed. i'm now joined by a man who has moderated some presidential debates before, chris wallace. thanks for being here. >> hosting debates on fox. >> let me start with a basic question. is a presidential debate without a he had louing candidate, and by the way, the leading candidate by far, what is it? does it matter? >> well, it will -- yes, it still matters. in a democracy, a lot of people are making up their minds. i'll give you a sense of audience participation. in 2016 on fox, we did the first debate with trump. 24 million people. the biggest nonsports audience

in the history of cable television. in january, just before the iowa caucuses, we did a debate. trump skipped that one. 12 million viewers. so half the audience, and my guess is, whatever they're going to get tomorrow night will be much less than they would have gotten were trump on the stage. >> perhaps trump being very conscious of ratings is aware of that. so one thing that's different than iowa, better than anybody, in caucuses, second choices matter. eventually you add those up and you can get to a point where that, the second choice votes and the first choice votes get added up. what do these eight candidates who are currently in distant second place at best, what do they need to do to stand out to perhaps make some progress? >> well, i think they have to do a couple of things. first of all, they can't be looking for second place votes. they have to be looking for first place votes. this is not just an iowa debate.

this is a debate for the whole country. someone will have to break through this. the latest poll, trump was ahead by 46 points of desantis, and all the others were in single digits. so you've got to somehow break that hold. i don't think you do it by going insulting trump supporters. but you do have to make a credible case as to why you should be the nominee and not trump, and so i think to a certain degree, whether it is policy, whether it is persona, you have to look big on that stage. you've got to stand out somehow. a viral moment. a lot of this is social media people who don't watch the debate but watch the coverage afterwards. and somehow, make an impression. >> adam kinzinger, former republican congressman, he made an interesting point last hour regarding what these candidates have to do. have a listen. i want to get your thoughts. >> i believe there's a path big enough if some people start speaking out. if you just have one person

speaking out, or two, you can kind of point to them as outliars. it is just asa and chris christie. if more people join, then all of a sudden, the base looks like, okay, there is a real problem here. the people we trust are telling us there is a problem so eventually, we believe there may be. >> he went on to say that he doesn't expect many folks to take on trump directly, and he doesn't see that as a winning strategy. you basically have to clues and move forward. you can't try to straddle the fence. >> i think you can go after trump but there is a very skillful and meticulous way you have to do it, with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. chris christie, i think he's standing out and he's getting, you know, a lot of support. particularly for people who won't vote in the republican primaries. but that's not the way to do it. and will desantis who talked about listless vessels the other day. you're never helped by insulting the potential voters. i think what you do is to make

the case that trump can't win. that trump carries too much baggage. that he's too concerned with the past and the future. having said that, everybody does it and he leads by 46 points. i'm not sure there is any way to break through and beat donald trump. maybe the only person who can is donald trump. >> quickly, you've moderated before, including on fox. a key question you would ask. >> the first thing you have to ask, who won the 2020 debate? secondly, you have to ask, what happened on january 6th? and if people aren't willing to answer those two questions truthfully, i don't see how they ever beat donald trump. i understand there are a lot of people in the republican party who, voters who feel, who go with trump on all that. unless you're willing to stand up and say, here's the truth. and more importantly focus and sargs we have to stop talking about 2020. let's talk about your future in

2024. you're just not going to win. >> we'll see if that question gets asked, or answered. chris wallace, thank you. so. after the debate, get the critical context and political analysis you need. there will be a post debate analysis tomorrow night, 11:00 p.m. eastern time right here on cnn. up next, new video shows police searching the home of the 98-year-old co-owner of a kansas news paper. why her son believes the stress from that raid contributed to her death the very next day. tes] awh,h, use priceline. they have papackage deals no one else has. [son inflates] we can do it! ♪go to o your happy price♪ ♪priceline♪

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we're seeing new security video posted by the small kansas newspaper we told but last week that was raided by police. this is it. this is inside the home of the county records, the 98-year-old co-owner, the mother of the editor of the paper, joan meyer. now, meyer died the day after this raid. her son believes that stress from the raid contributed to her death. the video shows her confronting those officers, telling them exactly how she feels about them being inside her home. cnn's whitney joins us now. what did she say to the law enforcement officers? where does this case now stand? >> reporter: well, she was very

clearly upset when you watch this video. we have a clip of the video to show you. and it exemplifies how distraught she was over the search of her home august 11th. >> don't you touch any of that stuff. >> ma'am -- >> this is my house. you're a [ bleep ] police chief. you're the chief. get out of my house. >> how many computers do you have in the house? >> i'm not going to tell you. get out of apply way. i want to see what they're doing. >> reporter: new today, the information that police brought to a judge to try to secure those search warrants has been made available. these records have been unsealed. they include again, the information used to obtain that search warrant as well as itemized lists of the devices that were seized from the offices of the marion county record from the home of a local city councilwoman as well as

joan meyers' home. it follows closely with what we've heard from eric meyer, that this, at least eric meyer believed, and this anecdote is noted in the affidavits as well, there was an incident august 1st at a local coffee shop, a local restaurant you're asked meyer and the reporter to leave. a meet and greet with a local representative later on, meyer and his reporter received this information about the local restaurant owner. that's what kicked off this entire investigation. we now know that the county attorney has pulled back those search warrants and returned the devices, so many more questions to ask. the records, newly unsealed today which are getting fresh insight into how this all happened. >> a fascinating case. thank you for the reporting. we are following some breaking news from the fulton county courthouse having to do with the indictment of former

president trump and several other alleged co-conspirators. we have kaitlyn polantz there following all this. you have news involving mark meadows. what can you tell us? >> reporter: there is tension building and that's because mark meadows and the district attorney's office appear to be in a bit of a stand-off because he is trying a legal maneuver to try to get his case from state court into federal court. he's already filed the paperwork to do that. and he is also saying he wants to not be arrested by that deadline on friday because he has a hearing on removing his case. so what is happening here is that his attorneys have tried to communicate that and negotiate with the district attorney fani willis here in georgia related to his arrest to try to prevent him from being arrested. and they're not having it. according to court filings that we're now getting in this federal case, my colleague has been following these very, very

closely, and these filings are reflecting that it is breaking down. the district attorney's office is telling mark meadows if he isn't arrested by turning himself in, negotiating bond just as these other defendants in this 19-defendant case are doing, that he will have a warrant issued for his arrest on friday if he does not go through this process like the others. meadows' position is that he doesn't need to because he was a federal official working at the behest of donald trump when trump was in the white house around the election in 2020 and then january 6th. he's saying he filed his paperwork in court to get some protection so that case could move to federal court because he was a federal official. he is citing the constitutional protections there and saying that just by filing that paperwork alone, the georgia prosecutors, everything they want to do, should be put on hold. but now we have to wait and see how this plays out. is a federal judge going to get

involved sooner than monday when he is supposed to have the hearing? would he be arrested on friday if he doesn't go through these bond negotiations and then over to the jail here in fulton county like other defendants including donald trump planning to do? this really is a development here that adds quite a complexity to what is going on in this case. and we're going to have to follow blow by blow, filing by filing, defendant by defendant, as these things develop. mark meadows is certainly a pretty important defendant among all of them here who is fighting the charges so far from the district attorney in georgia related to the 2020 election. >> he's not the only person in this case among these 19 co-defendants who is asking that their proceedings be moved to federal court. are there other people involved who are making this same case, sort of saying, hey, i don't want to proceed with what you are saying, that i need to turn

myself in until this is all settled? >> reporter: they haven't gone that far, although one of them, jeffrey clark, a justice department official, said in a court filing in federal court sort of insinuated that he didn't believe he could be arrested in this case, because he's filed this paperwork in federal court to get what the georgia prosecutors are doing moved from state court to federal court. but it is something that is really piecemeal right now. each defendant is coming in and approaching it their own way. so jeffrey clark has removed his case to federal court. mark meadows has removed his case to federal court. david shafer, the official in georgia, has removed his case to federal court. and a judge in federal court is looking at those filings and going to have to determine, is that the right thing to do here? do the cases stay in federal court? do they go back to where fani willis wants to try this, in

fulton county at this courthouse behind me? and there is a question, what happens with donald trump? all the arguments around this are about these people being somehow connected or protected by the mission of the federal government. things that they were doing either in david shafer's case as an elector, mark meadows, as top officials are working on behalf of the president. but then there is donald trump himself. the president of the united states at that time, and all of them are trying to invoke this clause. this law that allows them to say we would like to take this over to federal court because that is where we can do this, because we were federal officials at the time regarding these allegations that the prosecutors are making here. so how that plays out and what the law is going to be here, we're really in uncharted waters with a case like this against the former president. >> we certainly are.

thank you so much for that breaking news. kaitlyn poleants live for us from the federal county courthouse. we'll see if this is up to mark meadows if a judge does not step in. >> with us now to figure out what's going on here, it's a court proceeding. we've flown about this attempt to move to federal court. is this emergency motion different than anything we've seen to date? >> well, what is going on here is, mark meadows is so far religs ever lying on the fact that he's done his initial movement motion to freeze the proceedings. the thing about removal is, it doesn't, when you do this, when you ask the federal court to stop everything in the state trial court, states are considered to have a very strong interests in enforcing their own

law when there are serious alleged crimes like here. so unless mark meadows gets a judge, and i predict he will run to do this soon. unless he gets a judge issuing an order saying you do not need to turn yourself in, the matter is frozen, he is going to be subject to having an arrest warrant put on him if he doesn't meet the friday deadline. >> you have said this is a long shot by other defendants trying to move to federal court. do you still believe that? does your assessment change? >> i think there are three defendants who have tried it so far. mark meadows, the former chief of staff. jeffrey clark, the former doj lawyer, and then the third is david shafer, the former fake elector. they go from long to longer to longest. mark meadows has an uphill

battle. it's a two-part test, jil, and he has to prove first that this was an official act. and second, that he has a federal defense. but it can't be official because the white house has no role in counting votes in georgia. >> that's the point. this was a call to georgia state officials about georgia's election to change the results in georgia. for folks at home who are not lawyers, is that how they should understand there? >> yes. the constitution says, presidential vote counting is left to the states. and they say that for a reason. the founders were worried that some day a president might try tamper. the legal term is the outer perimeter of white house duties. this is beyond even the outer perimeter. that vote had been counted, recounted, signed, sealed, and

certified. on january 3rd. come on! so there's not a very strong legal argument. he also says constitution supremacy clause, but there's a long line of cases saying when you're involved in a criminal conspiracy, those constitutional defenses don't really apply to you when you know better. meadows influence better. >> all right. now it's up to a judge. we'll be right back.

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so there are growing security concerns in atlanta ahead of donald trump's expected surrender at the fulton county jail on thursday. a source telling cnn that a sheriff's office employee or rather sheriffs office employees have been the targets of threats. cnn's nick valencia is live outside. walk us through the nature of the threats they are receiving. >> reporter: this seems to be the norm here in georgia. first we had death threats to the district attorney fani willis, then the fulton county jurors and now the sheriffs deputies are receiving death threats themselves. a law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation tells me that leadership at the fulton county sheriff's office has received threats including death threats as well as threats to their personal homes. not only are they having to coordinate the logistical

nightmare of 19 defendants turning themselves in, he has to worry about the safety and security of deputies who are just doing their job. we should tell you that authorities do not mention this publicly or officially because they don't want to jeopardize any leads that they have in the separate cases. here outside the fulton county jail it has been a very active scene here when 2 of the 19 defendants having turned themselves in, we expect, again, the former president to do so sometime on thursday. boris. >> and, nick, have you heard anything about protests or rallies? we have seen demonstrations the other times that donald trump has headed to court. >> reporter: that's right, and he was on the truth social platform promoting a peaceful rally outside the fulton county jail as he turns himself in on thursday. we don't have a finite time of when he will do that. it's worth noting he was calling his supporters to come out to the fulton county courthouse, and the time we were out there,

the weeks and weeks we were out there, we saw two people. >> significant detail, nick valencia, thank you so much. obviously security a concern even though this is now the fourth time that donald trump has walked into somewhere to be processed on charges. >> and interesting that folks have not yet answered that call to show up in great numbers outside those locations. >> yeah, we'll see maybe if that changes, but what a big day we have seen here today. 10 bond agreements for these 19. so still nine to come, these 19 defendants. but this interesting development with mark meadows, he is saying, as he's seeking for his actions in georgia to be kicked over to federal court, he's asking if he doesn't turn himself in that an arrest warrant isn't issued for him. >> potentially testing the waters for other codefendants. >> for sure. and there are going to be a lot of motions every step of the way. lawyers are going to lawyer as they go through this. >> and it's going to get messy when you have 19 people involved in this for sure.

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welcome to "the lead" "the lead," i'm erica hill in for jake tapper. we begin with breaking news. a flurry of activity in georgia today including a bran