Kate. thank you, nick valencia, for being there. john. and potentially right now inside of the fulton county courthouse, one of the defendants will appear before the judge scott mcafee, and this is the first appearance before the judge, even though we have seen the surrenders of so many of the co-conspirators before. and zach is outside of the courthouse, and explain this, because it is so confusing of the different things going on here, and what is happening before the junldge and with who? well, harrison floyd who is the leader of an organization called the black voices for trump is one of the rare cases yesterday where the surrender did not go smoothly, because he failed to negotiate a bond agreement to the authorities at the fulton county jail, and so,
Win. let s get you live outside the fulton county jail now with cnn s zachary cohen. zach, we re learning more about the specifics of john eastman s booking. fill us in on those details. reporter: john eastman s attorney spoke to reporters alongside john eastman after he was booked, processed and released from the jail behind me. and he described john eastman s experience in the jail as just like anybody else s. he was fingerprinted. he took a mugshot. and so really we re getting our first look into how these defendants, these 18 co-defendants in addition to donald trump are being treated once they are booked inside the fulton county jail. now, john eastman answered some questions from reporters. his attorney seemed to be trying to persuade him not to do so. but he was very he was adamant. he said he had every right to file the lawsuits that he filed in an effort to overturn the 2020 election and that he was acting as an attorney for the former president. take a listen to a little bit of what he told reporters this
If she brings charges against the former president, it will be his 12th since leaving officers. zach, tell us all that you know. reporter: yeah, fred. it s a south georgia county, heavily republican, trump carried the vote by 70% there. but prosecutors do have text messages that connect members of trump s legal team to the breach that happened in the election office where operatives hired by lawyers like sidney powell and rudy giuliani did gain access to voting systems in 2021. the text messages show you the process and the planning that went into this breach and how trump attorneys were helping coordinate efforts to get access to this voting system in this rural republican county. rudy giuliani is someone that his lawyers vehemently denied had any involvement, pointing the finger at sydney powell but these text messages do show that
Eisen. he s a former white house ethics czar and served as counsel to the house democrats during the first impeachment of donald trump. great to have you here, especially when we re getting news like this. zach walked us through how it fits into the timeline, the narrative. walk us through the legal implications here now that we know they have these text messages and emails. well, fani willis is looking at three different areas of possible illegality. the first is the famous fake electoral certificates, the second is pressure on georgia election officials, that s the famous call, just find 11,780 votes, to secretary oftate brad raffensperger. and the third is the alleged intrusion on these computer systems in coffee county, geo georgia. the cnn story is very important because it connects the dots.
Trump s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. sources tell cnn that georgia prosecutors now have text messages and emails directly connecting trump s legal team to a voting system breach in coffee county, georgia in january 2021. this comes as the district investigating trump in georgia appears to be close to an indictment. fulton county district attorney fani willis is expected to seek charges against more than a dozen people. if she brings charges against the former president, it would be the fourth indictment of trump since being voted out of office. we have coverage of these new developments. isabel rosales is outside the fulton county court where security preparations under way. and we have cnn s zachary cohen with these new developments. zach, let s begin with you. tell us more about what you re learning and this new evidence.
County but other states as well. this is what fani willis is investigating in terms of the broader investigation into overturning the election. zach, what do you expect will be the sequence of events potentially? we re expecting prosecutors will start laying out their case before the grand jury this week. that will include witnesses who will come in and testify before the grand jury as early as tuesday. the indications are we could see indictments as early as tuesday, too. we could see trump and maybe even up to a dozen other people face charges early this week, maybe even as early as tuesday. isabel, what can you tell us about security preparations for this potential grand jury hearing, possible indictment of the former president. fred, the big question here is willful ton county be yet another place where trump is charged and then arrested.
From machines rather than just a sporadic random one-off. trump s attorneys now more connected to this breach than we knew previously. so how are spinks expected to play out this week? do we know, zach? yes, this week we are expecting the d.a. here to start presenting her case to the grand jury and we do also expect she will bring indictments shortly thereafter. that could happen as soon as tuesday. our reporting suggests that she could seek to bring over a dozen indictments and those charges could involve some of the people in the breach we were just talking about. we have to wait to see how this plays out and how the presentation plays out. willis does appear ready to bring charges in the future. and what can you tell us about this grand jury hearing and possible indictment of the former president if. clearly they are ready.
Three witnesses who are scheduled to come in on tuesday. by all accounts, we could see charges or indictments come as early as tuesday. but timing remains up in the air. the prosecutors may want more time to present it. all eyes on the fulton county courthouse starting tomorrow and indictment watch starts on tuesday. zachary cohen for us in atlanta. thank you for that reporting. we appreciate it. we want to continue this discussion with former federal prosecutor michael zeldin, who served as a special assistant to robert mueller at the justice department. great to see you. zach just went over these details that he and his colleagues broke about these text messages, these emails. is this a smoking gun for prosecutors? it makes their case much easier. if the trump defense is, my call
Development linking trump s legal team to a voting system breach in a rural georgia county. zach, what can you tell us? reporter: fred, coffee county, georgia is heavily republican where trump won over 70% of the vote there. but after the 2020 election, allies of donald trump and his attorneys tried to get access to a voting system there and ultimately were successful in that. and these new text messages are in the possession of prosecutors now lay out that plan and connect trump s attorneys like sydney powell, rudy giuliani to this planning process and effort to get access to voting systems. it lays out how in the days before the breach, even before 2021, the attorneys were trying to get written information from a local official there. connecting some of the dots showing this was more of a top-down effort to get access