Former President Donald Trump and a handful of others who were recently indicted in Fulton County negotiated bond agreements on Monday, opening the door for their surrenders at the Fulton County Jail.
Trump was granted a $200,000 bond, the largest of any of the defendants whose consent bond orders were released Monday. Attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro were granted $100,000 bonds, while lawyer Ray Smith and bail bondsman Scott Hall respectively received $50,000 and $10,000 bond orders, according to court documents signed by their attorneys and Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.
Later in the day, Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social that he will surrender and be “ARRESTED by a Radical Left District Attorney, Fani Willis” on Thursday. “In my case, the trip to Atlanta is not for ‘Murder,’ but for making a PERFECT PHONE CALL!”
Under the terms of the orders, the defendants can’t perform any acts of witness intimidation or communicate directly or indirectly about the facts of the case with any codefendants except through their own lawyers.
But Trump’s bond conditions were more detailed. For example, he can “make no direct or indirect threat of any nature” against any witness or against the 30 unindicted co-conspirators named in the indictment. He also can make no threat “against the community or to any property in the community.” And, likely in light of his highly critical posts on Truth Social, the above conditions “shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or re-posts of posts made by another individual on social media.”
The five men and 14 other people were indicted on racketeering and other election interference-related charges last week by a Fulton grand jury. District Attorney Fani Willis, who sought the indictments after a 2 1/2 year investigation, has said defendants have until noon Friday to surrender. Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat has said the former president would be treated like any other defendant, meaning he’d be processed at the county jail on Rice Street and have his fingerprints and mugshot taken.
Barricades around the Fulton County Courthouse will remain blocked until Saturday, the sheriff’s office said. In a statement, the sheriff’s office announced a perimeter will be set around the Rice Street jail for when Trump surrenders.
“When Former President Trump surrenders: there will be a hard lockdown of the area surrounding the Rice Street Jail, meaning no ingress or egress during that time,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Monday’s orders followed a busy afternoon at the Fulton courthouse, as defense attorneys met with prosecutors to negotiate bond and the terms of release for their clients to speed booking proceedings. Media presence was still relatively heavy as reporters milled around outside the building’s main entrances seeking out defense attorneys.
Don Samuel, an attorney representing Smith, said that when he went to meet with the DA’s staff on Monday they had a consent bond ready for him to sign.
David Wolfe, an Atlanta attorney who helped Eastman get his bond, said, “the Fulton County jail has been incredibly cooperative with helping to make booking arrangements for all defendants to surrender and get processed.”
All defendants face charges of violating the State’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Trump is accused of orchestrating a sweeping criminal enterprise and committing 13 felonies as he tried and failed to overturn his defeat in Georgia’s 2020 election.
Eastman, who is facing eight additional charges, testified remotely before Georgia lawmakers alongside co-defendant Rudy Giuliani in late 2020, contending there was evidence of widespread fraud in Georgia’s 2020 election. He was also involved in pressuring Vice President Mike Pence into rejecting the official Democratic electors in Georgia and other swing states in favor of “alternate” Trump electors.
Smith, who is facing 11 additional charges, is a lawyer from the firm Smith & Liss who advised the GOP electors who met in a committee room at the state Capitol to cast votes for Trump and signed documents falsely claiming Trump won.
Hall, facing six additional charges, was seen on security footage at the Coffee County Board of Elections on Jan. 7, 2021, when a team of pro-Trump operatives and a forensic data team copied sensitive elections hardware and software.
Chesebro is facing six additional charges. As a Trump campaign attorney, he worked with Georgia GOP leadership to coordinate a slate of “alternate” Republican electors.
Scott R. Grubman, Chesebro’s attorney, described the bond negotiations with the DA’s office as “very straightforward.”
“We had a meeting with the DA’s office, worked out the negotiated deal, signed the paperwork and honestly it took longer to get copies than to negotiate,” he told reporters Monday afternoon. He called Sheriff Labat “gracious” for his willingness to work with all the defendants “professionally” on their surrenders.
“Just like any jail, there’s clearly issues in the Fulton Rice Street. jail but I think it’s going to hopefully be as smooth as possible and we appreciate their cooperation,” Grubman said. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating conditions inside the jail, which has been plagued by inmate deaths, violence and problems with health care.
Conditions of bond include requirements to report for pre-trial supervision every 30 days, which may be done by phone, and to appear in court as directed.
- AJC reporter Jeremy Redmon contributed to this article.
