T N Ashok in Washington
Former US president Donald Trump, an accused of colluding with 18 other defendants to overturn the 2020 election result, spent 20 minutes inside Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail.
Former US president Donald Trump was arrested on racketeering and conspiracy charges yesterday at a Georgia jail. He had surrendered for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. However, the ex president was released on a 200,000 dollars bond. He headed back to his home in New Jersey sfter the release. This marks the fourth time that the former president has turned himself in after criminal charges were brought against him.
Earlier this month, Trump was indicted in Atlanta along with 18 others including his ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani under a racketeering statute normally associated with gang members and organized crime. This comes after the presidential debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday featuring his leading rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination, a contest in which he remains the leading candidate despite broad legal troubles.
CNN media outlet reported that Trump surrendered Like most of his 18 co-defendants in the sprawling racketeering case who have already surrendered at the jail, CNN said.
Trump’s processing through the facility was on at the time of reporting and was expected to be completed quickly as the former president and his lawyers had successfully negotiated his consent bond agreement. Trump agreed to a $200,000 bond and other release conditions set by the Fulton County Judge. Amongst the main conditions set out was Trump would not take to the social media (his penchant to air his grievances through his widely followed Truth Social) to target the co-defendants and witnesses in the case.
The judge granted the bail bond after Trump’s lawyers convinced him that Trump was not a flight risk, would not indulge in any misdemeanour to derail the court proceedings or indulge in any acts to intimidate the court staff or the witnesses , media reports said.
Trump covered the cost of his $200,000 bond by putting 10% toward it and working with a local Atlanta bonding company called Foster Bail Bonds LLC, CNN reported.
Trump’s surrender in Georgia is the 4th in a series of court appearances to local or federal officials after criminal charges were brought against him – events never before witnessed in US presidential history before 2023.
Trump, while traveling to Atlanta to surrender, continued to maintain that the 2020 elections were rigged and stolen even after he had been indicted twice by a federal jury in DC and a county judge in Fulton in Atlanta in Georgia for election meddling under the notorious RICO act.
Media reports said that still didn’t shake the remarkable and unprecedented scene of a former president – and the leading GOP candidate for the White House in 2024 – facing a criminal indictment.
Trump has faced a series of indictments since April this year starting with hush money paid to adult porn star by his counsel Michel Cohen, he surrendered for a 2nd time at a Miami federal courthouse to face charges in special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into the mishandling of classified documents, 3rdly earlier this month, he was placed under arrest in Washington, DC, and arraigned on charges brought by Smith in his investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Media reports said all of these cases are heading for a full-fledged trial until well into the next year with a calendar full of legal woes and Trump has to first cross the hurdle of getting the nomination from the GOP for the 2024 presidential race and if he wins how to pardon himself as some of the cases as the Georgia one are beyond is reach, political strategists said.
Georgia lawyer replaced
Ahead of his surrender, Trump replaced his top Georgia lawyer, Drew Findling, with Steven Sadow, an Atlanta-based attorney whose website profile describes him as a “special counsel for white collar and high-profile defence, ” CNN said.
Sources close to Trump indicated that this was not about Findling’s performance, while another familiar with Sadow called him the “best criminal defense attorney in Georgia.”
District Attorney asks for October 23 trial date
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pleaded with the court authorities to fix October 23 as the trial date for the election interference case brought against Trump and 18 of his allies.