Trump says he will surrender Thursday on Georgia charges tied to efforts to overturn 2020 election
The former president Donald Trump has announced that he will surrender himself to the authorities in Georgia, on Thursday. He is accused of illegally plotting to reverse his loss in Georgia’s 2020 elections.
“Can you believe it? “I’ll be going Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday to be arrested,” Trump wrote Monday night on his social network after his bond had been set at $200,000.
This will be Trump’s 4th arrest since April when he was the first ex-president in US history to be indicted. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has been booked and arraigned in jurisdictions all over the country. His appearances in New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C., attracted enormous media attention, as news helicopters tracked his every move.
Trump made his announcement hours after meeting with Atlanta prosecutors to discuss details of Trump’s release on bond. According to the bond agreement, signed by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis and Trump’s attorneys, the former president cannot intimidate co-defendants or witnesses in the case, including through social media. The bond agreement specifically includes “posts or reposts” on social media made by others.
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Trump has used social media repeatedly to attack people who are involved in criminal cases against himself as he campaigns for a return to the White House in 2020. He had been ranting against Willis before he was even indicted and singled Georgia Gov. In a post on social media, he named Brian Kemp, a Republican who rejected his attempts to overturn the elections.
The agreement prohibits him from making “direct or indirect threats of any kind” against witnesses and co-defendants. He is also prohibited from communicating with them about the facts in the case, other than through his attorneys.
The order set Trump’s bond at $80,000 for the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) charge, plus $10,000 each for the other 12 counts. The amount of bond that defendants are required to pay in order to guarantee their appearance at court is called collateral.
Willis has set a Friday noon deadline for Trump and 18 of his co-defendants, who must turn themselves in by then to be booked. The prosecutor proposed that the defendants be arraigned during the week beginning September 5. She said that she wanted to bring the case before a jury in March next year and try all defendants together. This would coincide with the intense presidential nomination season.
A Trump spokesperson did not respond immediately to a comment request on the filing. An attorney for the ex-president was also contacted by phone to ask for comment.
Trump’s Georgia appearance will be a day following the first Republican Primary Debate, which he decided to miss.
The Fulton County Jail, which has been plagued by problems for years, is where he will be expected to surrender. Last month, the Department of Justice opened a civil right investigation into the conditions at the Fulton County jail, citing filthy cell, violence, and the death of a man last year whose body had been found covered with insects in the main prison’s psychiatric wings. Fulton County has had three deaths in custody over the last month.
In a press release issued Monday afternoon, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office stated that the area around the jail will be “locked down” when Trump surrenders.
Trump will not spend a lot of time in the area.
When defendants enter the building, they usually pass through a checkpoint for security before registering in the lobby. During the booking procedure, defendants will be photographed and fingerprinted as well as asked for certain personal details. Trump will be released once the booking is completed, since his bond has been established.
In Fulton County, unlike in other jurisdictions where the first appearance in court is set up after the defendant has completed the booking process, it does not take place on the same date.
Other jurisdictions have faced a variety of security and logistical problems when booking a former President who is still under the protection of the Secret Service.
Trump has not been handcuffed in his previous appearances before a New York State Court and Federal Courts in Miami and Washington. The former president was not forced to pose for a photograph, and instead officials used existing photos of him.
Georgia officials said that Trump would be treated the same as other people charged with crimes within their state.
At a recent news conference, Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat stated that “unless someone tells me otherwise, we will be following our usual practices.”
Trump was indicted last week along with a slew allies who prosecutors claim conspired to subvert voters’ will in a desperate attempt to keep him in the White House following his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and characterizes this case, as well as the other three he faces, as an attempt to harm his presidential campaign in 2024. He uses his Truth Social platform regularly to target prosecutors and other people involved in his cases and continue to spread lies that the 2020 elections were stolen from him.
Trump attacked Kemp in a Monday post, calling him “crooked” and “incompetent”. He has been targeting Kemp for years because of the governor’s refusal intervene following the 2020 elections. Kemp was outspoken last week in his criticism of Trump. He wrote on social media: “The Georgia 2020 election was not stolen.”
Three lawyers were also indicted with Trump and a bond was set on Monday. The bond was set at $20,000 for each lawyer, and varied for other charges. John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro and Ray Smith each have a $100,000 bond.
Scott Hall’s bond was set at $10,000 after he was accused of a participating in the breach of voting equipment in rural Coffee County.
Other defendants are former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump Attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department official in the Trump administration who helped to reverse then-President Obama’s election loss in Georgia.
The Georgia indictment was made just two weeks after a Justice Department Special Counsel charged Trump with a separate case involving a conspiracy to overturn an election. Trump is also facing two other cases related to the election, including a federal case accusing him illegally of hoarding classified materials and a New York State case charging him with falsifying his business records.
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