Trump says he'll surrender to Georgia officials Thursday
CBC
Former U.S. president Donald Trump plans to turn himself in and be processed in Atlanta on Thursday in connection with his indictment in Georgia, he said on social media on Monday.
"I'll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. He described the indictment as a politically motivated effort to derail his re-election campaign.
CNN earlier reported that Trump planned to surrender at the Fulton County jail in Georgia on Thursday. The date was set during negotiations between Trump's lawyers and the Fulton County district attorney's office on Monday over Trump's consent bond and release conditions, CNN reported.
In a 98-page Georgia indictment revealed last week, Trump and 18 other defendants were charged with a total of 41 criminal counts in connection with allegedly trying to overturn the former president's loss in the 2020 election in the state.
The Fulton County Sheriff's Office said in a news release on Monday afternoon that when Trump surrenders, there will be a "hard lockdown" of the area surrounding the main county jail.
Trump, according to the papers, will face a $200,000 US bond, and is also barred from intimidating co-defendants, witnesses or victims in the case — including on social media — according to the bond agreement signed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Trump's defence lawyers and the judge. It explicitly includes "posts on social media or reposts of posts" made by others.
Trump has repeatedly used social media to attack people involved in the criminal cases against him as he campaigns to reclaim the White House in 2024.
He has been railing against Willis since before he was indicted, and he singled out Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp — a Republican who rebuffed his efforts to overturn the election — by name in a social media post Monday morning.
The agreement prohibits the former president from making any "direct or indirect threat of any nature" against witnesses or co-defendants, and from communicating in any way about the facts of the case with them, except through lawyers.
The order sets Trump's bond for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations — or RICO — charge at $80,000, and adds $10,000 for each of the 12 other counts he is facing. Bond is the amount defendants must pay as a form of collateral to ensure they show up in court ahead of trial.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his co-defendants were indicted on Aug. 14. Willis gave them until Friday at noon ET to surrender or face arrest.
Prosecutors in the case have proposed that the trial start on March 4, 2024, while Trump's lawyers have asked for a 2026 trial.
Trump's surrender on Thursday will come a day after the first Republican primary presidential debate that the former president does not plan to attend.
