A decide in Atlanta set bail for former President Donald J. Trump at $200,000 on Monday within the new election interference case in opposition to him, warning Mr. Trump to not intimidate or threaten witnesses or any of his 18 co-defendants as a situation of the bond settlement.
Mr. Trump, who posted on Reality Social that he would give up to the authorities in Atlanta on Thursday, can also be finding out logistical particulars in three different prison circumstances which have been filed in opposition to him this 12 months. Earlier within the day, federal prosecutors pushed again on a request from his legal professionals to postpone a separate election interference trial in Washington, D.C., till no less than April 2026.
Below his bond settlement in Georgia, Mr. Trump can not talk with any co-defendants within the case besides via his legal professionals. He was additionally directed to “make no direct or oblique menace of any nature in opposition to the group,” together with “posts on social media or reposts of posts made by one other particular person.”
The phrases have been extra in depth than these set for different defendants within the case up to now, which didn’t particularly point out social media. Previously, Mr. Trump has made inflammatory and typically false private assaults on Fani T. Willis, the district lawyer of Fulton County, who’s main the case.
Bond was set at $100,000 for John Eastman, one of many architects of a plan to make use of pretend electors to maintain Mr. Trump in energy. in response to courtroom filings; a lawyer for Kenneth Chesebro, who additionally developed that plan, mentioned the identical quantity was set for Mr. Chesebro.
Mr. Trump’s assaults continued on Monday forward of his bond being set. In a put up on Reality Social, he referred to as Ms. Willis “crooked, incompetent, & extremely partisan” and wrote that she “has allowed Homicide and different Violent Crime to MASSIVELY ESCALATE.” Actually, homicides have fallen sharply in Atlanta in the first half of the year.
Whereas Mr. Trump didn’t must pay bail within the different prison circumstances in opposition to him, the agreements posted for him and a number of other of his co-defendants in Georgia on Monday require five- and six-figure sums. The defendants must provide you with solely 10 p.c of the bail quantity, however even that might show troublesome for some, together with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the previous private lawyer for Mr. Trump, who’s operating out of cash due to an array of authorized entanglements.
Racketeering circumstances like this one will be significantly lengthy and dear for defendants — in one other racketeering case in the identical courtroom, involving numerous high-profile rappers, jury choice alone has gone on for seven months.
The prices clearly fear a few of the defendants within the Trump case; certainly one of them, Cathy Latham, a former Republican Celebration official in Georgia who acted as a pretend elector for Mr. Trump in 2020, has arrange a legal-defense fund, describing herself as “a retired public-school trainer dwelling on a trainer’s pension.” The $3,645 she has initially raised is effectively wanting a $500,000 objective.
Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who assisted Mr. Giuliani in his efforts to maintain Mr. Trump in energy after he misplaced in 2020, expressed frustration over the looming authorized prices just a few days after her indictment within the case. “Why isn’t MAGA, Inc. funding everybody’s protection?” she requested final week on X, previously often known as Twitter.
Mr. Trump and the opposite defendants have been indicted final week on expenses that they have been a part of a conspiracy to subvert the election ends in Georgia, the place Mr. Trump narrowly misplaced to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The indictment laid out eight methods the defendants have been accused of making an attempt to reverse the election outcomes as a part of a “prison enterprise”: by mendacity to the Georgia legislature, mendacity to state officers, creating pretend pro-Trump electors to bypass the favored vote, harassing election employees, soliciting Justice Division officers, soliciting Vice President Mike Pence, breaching voting machines and fascinating in a cover-up.
Mr. Trump has not been required to pay money bail within the three different prison circumstances he has been charged on this 12 months — one in Manhattan and two federal circumstances introduced by the particular counsel, Jack Smith, in Miami and Washington, D.C.
In Atlanta, prosecutors and regulation enforcement officers have emphasised a want to deal with the defendants as different accused felons would usually be handled within the metropolis’s prison justice system, with mug pictures, fingerprinting and money bails. However the Secret Service is certain to have safety calls for relating to the reserving of a former president.
On Monday, legal professionals for numerous the defendants have been seen strolling out and in of a fancy of related authorities buildings, together with the Fulton County courthouse and a authorities workplace constructing, the place they met with representatives from the district lawyer’s workplace. The legal professionals had little to say, together with about when Mr. Trump may give up.
“You’ll discover out every part quickly sufficient,” Drew Findling, Mr. Trump’s lead native lawyer, instructed reporters. “Persistence is a advantage.”
Ms. Ellis labored with Mr. Giuliani, the previous mayor of New York, within the weeks after Mr. Trump misplaced the election, touring with him to varied states to push claims of widespread fraud that have been shortly debunked. However she has been a goal of on-line assaults by allies of Mr. Trump for months, as she has been important of the previous president and has made supportive statements about his closest competitor within the Republican presidential major, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
“I used to be reliably knowledgeable Trump isn’t funding any of us who’re indicted,” Ms. Ellis posted on X final week. “Would this transformation if he turns into the nominee? Why then, not now?”
Requested about her put up, Ms. Ellis replied in a textual content message, “Mounting a protection in these circumstances is exorbitantly costly. I don’t have nice private wealth and am doing this by myself. I’ve been overwhelmed and blessed with the generosity and help of Christians and conservatives throughout the nation who need to assist me.”
An individual briefed on the matter mentioned that Ms. Ellis had not requested for assist from a legal-defense fund fashioned not too long ago by Mr. Trump’s advisers however that she had sought assist earlier and had been denied.
Mr. Trump has used a political motion committee that’s aligned with him, and that’s replete with cash he raised in small-dollar donations as he falsely claimed he was combating widespread fraud after the 2020 election, to pay the authorized payments of numerous allies, in addition to his personal.
However different defendants have been denied assist with mounting authorized payments lengthy earlier than they have been charged. Amongst these asking for assist are Mr. Giuliani; Mr. Trump’s political motion committee, which has spent roughly $21 million on legal fees primarily for Mr. Trump but in addition for others related to investigations into him, has up to now coated solely $340,000 for Mr. Giuliani.
All 19 defendants are required to show themselves in by midday on Friday.
“The order mentioned it needed to be by Friday, I consider, and he plans to comply with the order,” Mr. Grubman mentioned of Mr. Chesebro.
Sean Keenan contributed reporting from Atlanta.
