ATLANTA (CN) — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee denied a motion Tuesday from prosecutors that sought to revoke the bond agreement for Harrison Floyd, one of former President Donald Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia election subversion case.
While Floyd made “technical violations” of his bond agreement, “not every violation compels revocation,” the judge said. Although Floyd will not be taken into custody, McAfee said that the conditions of his release agreement will be amended to address the nuances of communicating on social media.
“I think the public safety interest raised as a result of today’s hearing indicate that his actions have a consequence,” he said. “And because he is under the conditions of this bond order, the court has the ability to curtail and protect that interest.”
McAfee's decision followed an hourslong hearing, where Floyd's attorneys argued against prosecutors claims that their client violated the terms of his $100,000 bond agreement, which states that he is not allowed to "communicate in any way, directly or indirectly" about the facts of the case with "any person known to him" to be a co-defendant or witness except through his counsel. It also prohibits him from performing "an act to intimidate any person known to him to be a co-defendant or witness."
In the motion filed last week, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Floyd had engaged in a "pattern of intimidation" towards co-defendants and witnesses, citing recent comments Floyd made on conservative podcasts and social media posts about Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, co-defendant Jenna Ellis, and former Atlanta poll worker Ruby Freeman and others.
Floyd, a former Illinois congressional candidate and former director of Black Voices for Trump, faces three felony charges under the sprawling racketeering indictment brought in August — one of which stems from influencing witnesses, specifically trying to intimidate Freeman into a false admission of committing election fraud.
Von DuBose, an attorney for Freeman, testified during the hearing that threats against her spiked following Floyd’s social media comments.
Willis personally argued the case, the first time she has done so in any of the pre-trial hearings so far in the case.
“He was given an opportunity to cooperate with the rules of this case and what he really did was spit on the court and refuse to oblige by three of the seven conditions of this bond order,” Willis said.
She mentioned 21 posts from X, formerly known as Twitter. In one post, Floyd tagged former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis — who recently accepted a plea deal and is now a witness for the prosecution — as well as the recently leaked video of her confidential proffer session. In the post, Floyd accuses Ellis of lying and “stealing” money raised for her defense and urged her to return the money.
Willis said that through her counsel, Ellis told her prosecution team that she had seen the post and that she believed "it was meant to both intimidate and harass" her, and encourage others to do so as well.
Floyd's attorney, Christopher Kachouroff, argued that tagging someone in a post is not the same as communicating with them, such as sending them a direct message would be.
During cross examination, Kachouroff questioned if one of the state's witnesses, Gabriel Sterling, who is the chief operating officer for Georgia's Secretary of State's office and presumptive witness in the case, felt threatened by Floyd's posts. In one post, Floyd calls Sterling a "piece of ..." with a poop emoji and writes "make elections fair again," followed by the hashtag "fraud."
Sterling said that the comments towards him were just a part of being a public figure and when asked by Kachouroff if he would have contacted law enforcement if he felt threatened, he said yes.
Floyd is the only defendant in the case to have spent time behind bars in the Fulton County jail, because he had not yet hired an attorney to arrange a bond on his behalf at the time of his surrender to the charges in August. He accused Willis of wanting him to "rot" in jail after spending five days there, and was able to gain sympathy from a conservative crowdfunding campaign that raised over $341,000 for his legal defense.
Since then, Floyd’s legal counsel has taken on a challenging legal strategy in the case by trying to prove his claims that Trump actually won the 2020 election in Georgia, or that there was enough uncertainty to justify Floyd’s actions following the election.
After four recent plea deals, 15 defendants remain pending trial in the case, including Trump. The sweeping indictment that was brought in August claims those charged "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump."
Prosecutors recently requested that the trial begin on Aug. 5, 2024, but the judge has yet to rule on that proposal.
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