Former US president is banned from talking about alleged fraud attempt except with his lawyers
The legal team of former US President Donald Trump appeared, this Monday (21.Aug.2023), at the Court of Fulton County, in the State of Georgia, to negotiate a bail for the republican. The agreed amount was US$200,000, under certain conditions.
According to “consent bond order”, Trump may not take any act to intimidate co-defendants or witnesses in the case. He is also prohibited from communicating with them except through their lawyers. Here’s the full of the document (466KB, in English).
Of the total amount, $80,000 will have to be paid due to the violation of Georgia’s “Rico” (Corrupt Organizations Influenced by Extortionists) crime program. Here is the breakdown of the remainder of the bail:
- US$ 70.000 for criminal conspiracy;
- US$ 20.000 on account of criminal requests;
- US$ 20.000 by false statements;
- US$ 10.000 by filing false documents.
The document was signed by Judge Scott McAfee, the prosecutor in charge of the case, Fani Willis, and defense attorneys for the former US president, Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little.
UNDERSTAND THE CASE
Donald Trump was formally indicted on August 14, 2023 for trying to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. The election was won by Democrat Joe Biden. The former president and the 18 co-defendants in the lawsuit have until Friday (Aug. 25) to appear in court in Atlanta, the state capital.
Investigations into the case began in February 2021 after a link between Trump and Georgia Secretary Brad Raffensperger, who is also responsible for the state’s electoral process, was leaked.
In the conversation, the former president asks Raffensperger to arrange 12,000 more votes for him to win the election. “Trump and the other defendants refused to accept that Trump lost and knowingly and intentionally joined a conspiracy to illegally change the election result in Trump’s favor”, says the indictment.
To win the presidential election in the United States, you need to get 270 delegates to the Electoral College. In 2020, Biden had 306 delegates and Trump, 232. With 16 delegates, Georgia – which had not given a majority to a Democratic president since Bill Clinton, in 1992 – went to Biden’s side by less than 12,000 votes.
Read more:
OTHER CASES
This is the 4th indictment against the former president. On August 1, Trump was accused of instigating the invasion of the Capitol – the US Congress. Two months earlier, he was indicted on 37 criminal charges related to handling secret documents after he left the White House.
Also in March, the Republican was also indicted in the case of an alleged payment of $ 130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels. The money would have been given to her during the 2016 presidential campaign so that Daniels would not disclose an alleged extramarital affair with the former president. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
PRESIDENTIAL RUN
Despite the problems with the Justice, Trump comfortably leads the Republican Party primaries, which decide who will be the political group’s candidate in the November 2024 elections. The choice is scheduled for January 15, 2024.
According to the research aggregator of the FiveThirtyEight, the former president has 52.3% of the voting intentions. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is next at 15.2%. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former vice president Mike Pence are in 3rd and 4th place, with 9.3% and 4.7%, respectively.
Read more about the Republican caucuses:
Source: https://www.poder360.com.br/internacional/trump-concorda-com-fianca-de-us-200-mil-em-caso-na-georgia/
