Donald Trump agreed to a $200,000 bond in the Georgia criminal case accusing him of leading a conspiracy to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election in the swing state, ahead of his eventual surrender to jail officials.
The former president also agreed not to communicate with any potential witnesses about the case or make any “direct or indirect threat of any nature” against them, including in social media posts or reposts, according to a copy of the document posted Monday in Fulton County court.
The agreement will likely simplify Trump’s booking as a criminal defendant in the case. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ordered all 19 defendants to voluntarily surrender to the Fulton County Jail by midday Aug. 25. Their arraignments in court are expected to take place the week of Sept. 5 in Atlanta.
The so-called consent agreement on bond was signed by Trump’s lawyer Drew Findling, as well as the judge overseeing the case and Willis, who indicted Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators on Aug. 14.
Willis alleges Trump and the others participated in a criminal enterprise to keep Trump in office after he lost the election by spreading false claims of voter fraud and arranging a slate of fake presidential electors to derail the certification of Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump, who has been selling “not guilty” mugs with a fake mugshot on his campaign website, denies wrongdoing and claims all the criminal cases are part of a Democratic “witch hunt” to destroy his election campaign for president.
The area around the jail will be locked down when Trump surrenders, meaning no one will be allowed to enter or exit without credentials, the county said in a statement Monday.
Similar bond agreements were filed in court on Monday by other defendants in the case, including lawyers John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, both of whom have denied wrongdoing. Each agreed to post a $100,000 bond.
Eastman, a conservative attorney, became a close adviser to Trump in the weeks following the election and drafted two memos laying out options for then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump the victor or delay Congress certifying the 2020 results.
Eastman’s lawyer, Harvey Silverglate, said that arranging the bond before the booking ensures his client won’t be jailed during the process.
Chesebro, a lawyer in the Trump 2020 campaign orbit, was involved in drawing up fake presidential elector slates in Georgia and elsewhere to help carry out that plan.
The case is The State of Georgia v. Trump, 2023SC188947, Superior Court of Fulton County, State of Georgia.
(Updates with lockdown in seventh paragraph.)
