The Fulton County District Attorney will argue Tuesday against the Fulton County District Attorney’s request that Harrison Floyd’s bond be revoked. Floyd is one of 18 former president Donald Trump’s co-defendants who are accused of Georgia election interference. Floyd’s social media posts, according to prosecutors, constitute “intentional, flagrant and repeated violations” of the conditions of his bond.
In a Motion last week, the District Attorney Fani willis’ office cited Floyd’s posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) that targeted Georgia election officials like Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Gabriel Sterling, and Ruby Freeman, as well as election workers.
Willis wrote that “since November 1, 2023 the Defendant publicly tweeted numerous times from the account @hw_floyd, in an attempt to intimidate and witness codefendants, to communicate with witnesses and codefendants directly and indirectly, and to obstruct justice in any other way.”
She continued, “As stated above, since his release, the defendant has engaged in an intimidation pattern toward known witnesses and codefendants, as well as direct and indirect communication of facts about this case to witnesses and codefendants who are known, and obstruction of justice, in direct violation of the order of this Court.”
Floyd’s attorneys responded in a Monday filing, denyingthat his social media posts had violated the bond order. They said that this motion was a “retaliatory action” against him.
“In exercising his First Amendment right, Mr. Floyd did not threaten or intimidate anyone. He certainly did communicate directly or indirectly with a co-defendant or witness.” “He has no idea at this stage who the State witnesses are,” they wrote in their filing. If this really was an issue, State could have notified Mr. Floyd and his attorney that his social media posts were a problem.
Floyd’s lawyers said that he had been in plea negotiations “weeks” ago and that Willis’ office did not refer to the social media posts referred to in the motion robbing his bond.
They wrote: “All Mr. Floyd’s postings constitute political speech, which is the cornerstone of First Amendment protections.” “None contain any threats to use force which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the posts are somehow intimidating or illegal.”
Floyd’s lawyers also claimed that Freeman’s testimony was helpful in his case, in response to the allegations that Floyd’s tweets were meant to intimidate Freeman.
“It’s Mr. Floyd’s opinion that Ms. Freeman would be a valuable witness for the defense — not one who is favorable to prosecution.” “There is no chance that Mr. Floyd would try to intimidate Ms. Freeman,” the writers wrote.
Floyd’s lawyers also demanded that prosecutors provide evidence that Freeman suffered harm because of the posts made by their client. They asked Judge Scott McAfee either to reject this motion or to include language restricting social media comments, similar in nature to former President Donald Trump’s bond order.
In the Georgia case of election interference, prosecutors have accused Floyd Floyd of being involved in a plan to force Freeman into making false statements. Trump and his allies falsely accused Freeman in the 2020 elections of fraud.
Floyd, former leader of Black Voices for Trump and the only defendant in this case, who was jailed for a period after surrendering to authorities in August. After being booked, all of the defendants were released. This included Trump. Floyd was told during his first court appearance that, due to the fact that he was a flight risk, he would remain in Fulton County Jail.
Floyd then negotiated a bond. McAfee fixed Floyd’s bail at $100,000, with $40,000 for racketeering and $30,000 on each charge of influencing witness and conspiring to solicit false statements and writings.
