Co-defendant in Trump election case wants bond conditions eased to work on 2024 campaign
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - One of the co-defendants in Georgia's election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his associates wants a judge to ease conditions for his bond.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Harrison Floyd, the former leader of Black Voices for Trump, asked a Fulton County judge to allow him to communicate with the former president so that he can work on Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
Floyd also asked Judge Scott McAffee to allow him to use the social media platform X to discuss work or matters outside the case.
McAfee said he was open to modifications to Floyd's bond, but an official ruling is still being worked out.
Harrison Floyd (Fulton County Sheriff's Office)
Who is Harrison Floyd and what is he charged with?
Floyd was indicted along with Trump and 17 others in August 2023 by a Fulton County grand jury and is accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
The charges against Floyd stem from allegations of harassment of Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County election worker who had been falsely accused of election fraud by Trump and his supporters. Floyd took part in a Jan. 4, 2021, conversation in which Freeman was told she "needed protection" and was pressured to make false statements about election fraud, the indictment says.
Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a pastor from Illinois, went to Freeman’s home in December 2020. He intended to claim to be offering her help in order to get her to make false statements about what happened at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, where ballots were being tallied, the indictment says.
After Lee failed to connect with Freeman at her house, he sought help from Floyd, a leader in the organization Black Voices for Trump, telling Floyd that Freeman was afraid to talk to him because he was a white man, the indictment says. Floyd solicited the help of Trevian Kutti, who had worked as a spokesperson for R. Kelly and Kanye West. She traveled to Atlanta from Chicago in early January 2021 to try to connect with Freeman.
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Trump co-defendant will not return to jail
Fulton County elections interference defendant Harrison Floyd will not return to jail over posts made to social media, but the judge is reconsidering his bond agreement. District Attorney Fani Willis spent Tuesday afternoon arguing back and forth with Floyd's attorneys over whether his posts were direct or indirect communication with potential witnesses, including co-defendant Jenna Willis who took a plea deal.
Kutti arranged to meet Freeman at a suburban police precinct and they spoke for about an hour, with Floyd joining the meeting by phone. Kutti and Floyd told Freeman that she needed protection and that they could help her, but in reality, they were trying to influence her testimony and get her to lie about what happened at State Farm Arena as votes were being counted, the indictment says.
Floyd was the only one of the 19 defendants in the case to spend time behind bars at the Fulton County Jail in August. While the other defendants in the case had their lawyers reach out to prosecutors for a bond agreement before turning themselves in at the jail, Floyd showed up on Aug. 24 without a lawyer or a bond agreement. He was released Aug. 30 after his lawyer negotiated a $100,000 bond.
In addition to the charges in Georgia, Floyd also faces federal charges that accuse him of aggressively confronting two FBI agents sent to serve him with a grand jury subpoena.
Harrison Floyd's modified bond order | full video
Judge Scott McAfee heard from prosecutor DA Fani Willis and Harrison Floyd's lawyers Tuesday. He signed a modified bond order limiting how he can interact on social media as it pertains to the election fraud case he has been indicted in alongside co-defendant former President Donald Trump.
What are Harrison Floyd's bond conditions?
In November, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the court to revoke Floyd's bond, citing numerous posts he had made on social media in the previous weeks. They included repeated attacks on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and numerous mentions of Freeman, both likely witnesses in the case. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he also accused attorney Jenna Ellis, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty last month, of lying.
Willis called these and other posts "intentional and flagrant violations" of his bond conditions.
Floyd’s attorneys noted that while Trump’s bond order specifically mentions the use of social media as part of his bond conditions, Floyd’s does not. They included examples of social media posts that Trump made about his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a co-defendant, and about attorney Sidney Powell, who pleaded guilty in the case.
While McAfee did not revoke Floyd's bond, he did say he believed that Floyd had made a "technical violation" of his restrictions.
In his ruling, the judge said that Floyd's bond required him not to communicate in any way about the case except through his council with any witnesses, co-defendants, or anyone named in the indictment.
Floyd also can not make any social media posts on any platform about anyone connected with the case.
At the hearing on Tuesday, McAfee said he would look into the language of the updated bond to see if Floyd could have some indirect contact with others involved in the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.