Former US President Donald Trump says he will surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face charges in the case accusing him of illegally scheming to subvert the 2020 US elections.
‘Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED,’ Trump posted on his social media on Monday night.
This was hours after a court order that set his bond at $200,000.
The Fulton county sheriff’s office said in a news release on Monday afternoon that there will be a ‘hard lockdown’ in the area surrounding the main county jail, when the former US President is brought in.
In a court document posted online on Monday outlining the 13 charges against Trump, bond amounts range from $10,000, for counts including criminal conspiracy and filing false documents, to $80,000, for a violation of the Georgia Rico Act, often used against organised crime which has seen many mob bosses go to prison.
The bond document also said Trump ‘shall not communicate in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case with any person known to him to be a codefendant in this case except through his or her counsel.’
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has set a deadline of noon on Friday for Trump and his 18 co-defendants to turn themselves in to be booked.
Authorities in Georgia are also investigating threats made to grand jurors.
Arraignments for the defendants will be done in the week of September 5, before a trial in March.
In Fulton county, when defendants are not in custody, their lawyers and the district attorney’s office will often work out a bond amount before arraignment.
During the booking process, the accused are typically photographed and fingerprinted and personal details are collected.
Trump will be released from custody once the booking process is complete, as his bond has already been set.
Defendants also include the former New York mayor and Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. The deadline for defendants to turn themselves in is 12pm ET on Friday.
Willis, who last week secured indictments of Trump and 18 aides and allies, signed off on the bond agreements along with Trump’s lawyers.
Trump denies wrongdoing in Georgia and in three other indictments which have produced a total of 91 criminal charges.
The charges cover federal and state election subversion in 2020, the retention of classified information after leaving office, and hush-money payments to a porn star during the 2016 election.
Despite such unprecedented legal troubles, including civil investigations of Trump’s business affairs and a defamation case in which a judge said Trump was adjudicated a rapist, the former president dominates the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Ahead of the first debate on Wednesday, which Trump will not attend, he leads his nearest challenger, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, by about 40 points in national polling averages and by wide margins in key states.
On social media on Monday, some observers doubted that Trump would abide by the terms of his bond.
Others suggested Trump leveraged his predicament to fund his campaign to return to the White House, widely seen as a means of avoiding prison.