Former president Donald Trump will officially be arrested and booked on racketeering and conspiracy charges in Fulton County, Georgia on Thursday, one day before the court-ordered deadline for the ex-president and his 18 co-defendants to surrender to authorities.
Mr Trump announced the timing for his appearance at the Fulton County jail in a post on his Truth Social platform, writing that he would be “going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED” by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who he accused of “overseeing one of the greatest Murder and Violent Crime DISASTERS in American History”.
He added a claim to have been charged “for making a PERFECT PHONE CALL” and further accused Ms Willis of “continuing to campaign, and raise money on” the criminal case against him and claimed the Georgia prosecutor was acting “in strict coordination” with the Department of Justice.
Mr Trump’s arrest and processing will be carried out by deputies with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, and rather than charges for a “perfect phone call,” he is charged with alleged violations of Georgia’s violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act and more than a dozen other criminal laws in the Peach State during his push to remain in office against the will of voters after he lost the 2020 election.
According to court documents, Mr Trump will remain free on $200,000 bail after he is officially arrested and processed, which will include him being photographed, fingerprinted, and weighed for the sheriff’s department records.
In a consent order agreed to by Mr Trump’s attorney and the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set Mr Trump’s bond at $80,000 for the single charge he faces for violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, plus an additional $10,000 for each of the 12 counts he faces for criminal conspiracy, criminal solicitation, filing false documents and false statements charges.
The $80,000 bond that was set for Mr Trump on his RICO charge is four times as high as that asked of his alleged co-conspirator and co-defendant, ex-law professor John Eastman.
A similar consent order set Mr Eastman’s bond at $100,000 — $20,000 on the RICO charge, and $10,000 for eight additional charges.
Both Mr Trump and Mr Eastman are required to post 10 per cent of their respective bond amounts and will be mandated to make monthly reports to Fulton County’s pre-trial supervision officials.
As conditions of release, both were ordered not to “violate the laws of this State, the laws of any other state, the laws of the United States of America, or any other local laws” as a condition of their release, and warned against performing any “act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice”.
They were further forbidden from communicating “in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case ... except through his or her counsel” with any co-defendant or anyone known to be a witness in the case against them.
But Mr Trump’s consent order includes several more provisions which appear tailored to the ex-president’s history of attacking any perceived opponent — legal or political — on his social media platform and in public statements.
Under his release conditions, Mr Trump was ordered to “make no direct or indirect threat of any nature” against his co-defendants, any witnesses in the case — including the 30 un-indicted co-conspirators described in the indictment against him — or any victims.
The twice-impeached, quadruply-indicted former president was also barred from making any “direct or indirect threat of any nature against the community or to any property in the community,” and warned that those restrictions against him include “posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media”.
His co-defendants include his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows; ex-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani; attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powel; Trump campaign lawyer Ken Cheseboro; and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
Each is charged with violating Georgia’s RICO statute, which is modelled after a federal law enacted to fight Italian-American organised crime in the 1970s.
Additionally, Mr Trump faces 12 other charges, including: Conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of conspiracy to make false statements under oath, two counts of conspiracy to file false documents, two counts of solicitation of a public officer, filing false documents, conspiracy to solicit false statements, and making false statements.
Each of the co-defendants — including Mr Trump — was required to be arrested and booked by the Fulton County Sheriff’s office before noon on Friday, 25 August.
