Harrison Floyd, latest defendant in Trump Georgia election interference case, gets bail

Harrison William Prescott Floyd, a Donald J. Trump supporter who was charged with the former president in the Georgia election interference case, was granted $100,000 bail on Tuesday, the last of 19 charged in the case. to reach a surety agreement.

While the other defendants named in the indictment, including Mr. Trump, have made only brief visits to an Atlanta jail in recent days to be booked, Mr. Floyd, 39, who once headed a group called Black Voices for Trump, spent a number of days in jail after turning himself in last Thursday, reportedly because he showed up to his reservation without a lawyer.

As of Tuesday evening, Fulton County inmate records showed that Mr Floyd had not yet been released. Neither Mr. Floyd nor the attorney who eventually signed on to represent him, Todd A. Harding, could be reached on Tuesday for comment.

Mr Floyd, who is also known as Willie Lewis Floyd III, is accused of being involved in a scheme to extract a confession of voter fraud from Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County election worker, while Mr Trump and a a number of his followers were looking for him. evidence of fraud so they can derail Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential vote.

The targeting of Ms Freeman, a black woman in her 60s, is one of the strangest accounts that form the basis of the 98-page indictment. Shortly after the election, right-wing commentators began airing unfounded accusations of wrongdoing by Ms Freeman, based on security camera footage showing her counting votes in a sports arena in the downtown Atlanta.

Mr. Trump joined us, mentioning Ms. Freeman’s name in his now famous January 2, 2021 phone call to Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During the call, he called Ms Freeman a ‘professional hustler and con artist’ and told Mr Raffensperger he wanted to ‘find’ about 12,000 votes in Georgia – just enough for him to win the State.

Two days later, a Trump supporter, Trevian Kutti, persuaded Ms. Freeman to meet her at a police station in Cobb County, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. Ms Kutti warned Ms Freeman that an event would soon occur that would “disrupt” her “freedom”, according to police body camera video of the meeting. Ms Kutti also offered vague assurances of help, telling Ms Freeman she was going to call a man who had “authoritative credentials to protect you”.

Ms. Freeman then called Mr. Floyd. According to Reuters, Ms Freeman said Mr Floyd tried to pressure her into saying she had committed voter fraud. Ms Kutti warned her that she would go to jail if she didn’t “tell everything”, Ms Freeman told the outlet.

All 19 defendants in the sweeping Georgia indictment, including Mr. Trump, are charged with racketeering in connection with what prosecutors call a ‘criminal organization’ whose purpose was to illegally undo the election defeat of the US. former president in this state. They all face at least one other charge; Mr. Floyd is charged with influencing a witness and conspiracy to solicit false statements and forged writings.

Mr. Floyd was previously arrested in February for attacking a federal agent involved in the Justice Department’s investigation into the 2020 election, The Washington Post reported last week.