Donald Trump to turn himself in over Georgia election case
August 22, 2023
Donald Trump will hand himself over to authorities in Georgia later this week, the former US president said on Monday.
"I'll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED," Trump said on his own social media platform Truth Social.
He claimed the indictment was politically motivated in an effort to derail his reelection campaign.
Trump and 18 other co-defendants have until noon (1600 GMT) on Friday to surrender. Trump's personal lawyer, John Eastman, said he plans to hand himself over to Fulton County authorities.
What are the charges against Trump?
In a 98-page Georgia indictment revealed last week, prosecutors accused Trump and his co-defendants of conspiring to subvert the will of voters by keeping him in the White House after he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump and the co-defendants were charged with a total of 41 criminal counts in connection with efforts to overturn his electoral loss in the state.
His bond was set at $200,000 (€180,000) and he has been ordered not to post threatening messages on social media.
"The defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a co-defendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice," Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said in a court filing.
"The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media," the judge said.
Trump's legal troubles
The Georgia case marked Trump's fourth indictment.
In New York, he was charged with falsifying business records related to a hush money payment for porn star Stormy Daniels.
He also faces two federal criminal cases: one related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago mansion, and another accusing him of illegally seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all of the cases.
However, he could spend much of 2024 in court as he campaigns in the Republican presidential primaries, where he is the frontrunner.
He plans to skip the first Republican debate on Wednesday.
zc/jsi (AP, AFP, Reuters)