Illinois pastor Stephen Lee turned himself in Friday at Fulton County Jail on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Lee was the last of 19 co-defendants who were indicted by a grand jury last week who faced Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ noon Friday deadline to “voluntarily surrender” or be slapped with an arrest warrant. He apparently surrendered within one hour of the deadline.
All 19 co-defendants face Georgia state racketeering charges.
The Illinois pastor is facing four additional criminal counts: two counts of criminal attempt to commit influencing witnesses, one count of conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings, and one count of influencing witnesses.
Lee, along with publicist Trevian Kutti who surrendered shortly before the pastor, is accused of attempting to influence the testimony of Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman.
According to the indictment, Lee traveled to Freeman’s home on December 14, 2020 “with intent to influence her testimony” regarding events at State Farm Arena where ballots were being counted.
Freeman and her daughter and fellow election worker Shaye Moss had been targeted by former President Trump and his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani by baselessly claiming the pair were counting fake mail-in ballots. Those claims have been refuted repeatedly by local and federal officials, and in a July court filing in a lawsuit against Giuliani—one of the Georgia co-defendants who surrendered on Wednesday—admitted that he had told lies about Freeman and Moss.
Lee was the seventh and final of the co-defendants to surrender at Fulton County Jail since Trump surrendered related to 13 criminal counts around 7:30pm ET Thursday and had his mug shot taken.
