RUDY GIULIANI HAS surrendered to authorities in Georgia on charges alleging he acted as former US president Donald Trump’s chief co-conspirator in a plot to subvert the 2020 election.

The former New York City mayor, celebrated as “America’s mayor” for his leadership after 9/11, is charged with Trump and 17 other people under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act.

His bail has been set at $150,000, second only to Trump’s $200,000.

Prison records showed he was booked this afternoon.

Giuliani (79) is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia and other closely contested states to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint electoral college electors favourable to Trump.

Georgia was one of several key states Trump lost by slim margins, prompting the Republican and his allies to proclaim, without evidence, that the election was rigged in favour of his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Giuliani is charged with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state lawmakers to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternate slate of pro-Trump electors.

Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis has said that, if convicted, Giuliani will be sentenced to prison.

Giuliani has denied wrongdoing, saying he had a right to raise questions about what he believed to be election fraud.

He has called the indictment “an affront to American democracy” and an “out and out assault on the First Amendment”.

“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United States attorney,” Giuliani told reporters as he left his apartment in New York today.

He said he is “fighting for justice” and has been since he first started representing Trump.