Former US President Donald Trump remains free on bail and under strict conditions after being subjected to criminal investigations in Georgia on Thursday. But what if he ignores them?
Donald Trump is due to appear in the Fulton County Jail Thursday for criminal investigations on his charges of tampering with the election in the state of Georgia. If the former US President does not receive special treatment – which is not to be expected – his personal details will be recorded there, his fingerprints taken and police photos taken. Formally, this can be an arrest. After the procedure, Trump can leave prison on bail, so he does not have to be held in custody.
Court imposes strict conditions on Trump
Judge Scott McAfee of the Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta set the bail amount at $200,000 (around 185,000 euros) on Monday after negotiations between the responsible district attorney Fani Willis and Trump’s lawyers – and linked the release of the accused to strict conditions. According to the court document, Trump is prohibited from taking any action “aimed at intimidating any person he knows may be a co-defendant or witness in this case, or otherwise obstructing the administration of justice.”
In detail, the court order issued Donald Trump with the following requirements:
- The accused shall not make any direct or indirect threat of any kind against a co-defendant.
- The accused shall not make any threat, direct or indirect, of any kind against any witness, including but not limited to those identified in the indictment as co-conspirators not accused.
- The accused shall not make any kind of threat, direct or indirect, against a victim.
- The accused shall not make threats of any kind, direct or indirect, against the community or against property in the community.
- The above includes, but is not limited to, posting on social media or republication of another individual’s posting on social media.
Trump is also prohibited from communicating in any way, directly or indirectly, about the case with any person he knows to be a co-defendant, except through his legal counsel.
Now the former US President is not exactly known for his reticence when it comes to spreading his opinion or attacking people or institutions he doesn’t like. So what happens if Trump can’t control himself and violates the court order? Will he be locked up then?
“Trump is not someone you can just throw in jail”
The practical problems of incarcerating a former president and leading Republican nomination candidate in the Fulton County jail made it extremely unlikely that a single breach of his bail conditions, unless particularly egregious, would land Trump in custody, legal experts said from Georgia NBC News. “Donald Trump is not the kind of person you can just throw in jail. He has to have his security guards, his Secret Service, with him, and they can’t do anything that could jeopardize his personal safety. So I think that it would be extremely difficult to do that,” the news channel quoted Caren Morrison, law professor at Georgia State University.
Judges are generally reluctant to put suspects in jail after they’ve posted bail, Morrison said. “I think they’re trying to give people a chance to mend themselves, rather than remanding them.” In addition, there would be a number of ways to ensure that a defendant would comply with a bail order without a warrant being issued.
For example, if Trump posts on social media that District Attorney Willis considers a threat, NBC News says he could be called to a hearing where Judge McAfee will review his conduct and decide whether it actually violated the terms of the deal. If McAfee found that the defendant violated his covenants, he would decide on a sentence. Possible alternatives to imprisonment would be a simple warning against future violations, a tightening of the regulations, or a daily fine for contempt of court to be paid until the posts are deleted.
Ex-US President under pressure
Donald Trump has these legal problems on his hands
“The court’s authority to ensure that its order is enforced depends on the manner in which the accused violated the order,” said Tanya Miller, a congressman and former Georgia state attorney. Channel. “The remedy may be designed to address that violation and it may mean revoking bail or simply imposing additional terms.”
But even if Trump appears to have violated his bail conditions with a social media post, that’s no guarantee that Willis McAfee will draw attention to it or demand that bail be released. “I would imagine that when things get tight, the state might decide not to crack down as hard just to keep the case clean and move forward,” Miller said. However, if there is a clear violation of conditions and, for example, demonstrably co-defendants are actively threatened or actively tried to influence witnesses, “then I think the state has a duty to ensure the integrity of the case and the integrity of the process.”
If the court doesn’t manage to keep Trump under control in other ways and the court order continues to be disregarded, law professor Morrison believes that, despite all the difficulties, the ex-president could also be imprisoned as a last resort: “If the behavior continues or repeats itself, that’s what you see at the end of the road.”
Sources: document cloud, NBC News