Harrison Floyd: Bond deal reached for accused jailed in Georgia

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The only defendant in the Georgia election interference case, who is being held in the Fulton County Jail, is expected to be released five days after his arrest.

This comes after the judge placed bail in his case.

Harrison Floyd’s lawyer told the BBC that his client had not been able to shower during his time in prison and was “concerned” about his personal safety.

The BBC has reached out to the Fulton County Jail for comment.

Floyd surrendered on Thursday without an attorney, opting at the time to forego legal aid over the cost.

Georgia prosecutors allege that the 39-year-old former US Marine was part of a plot to pressure an election worker into making false claims about ballot fraud and election fraud in the state.

He turned himself in late last week without a pre-negotiated bond.

At a hearing on Friday, where he represented himself, the judge denied his request for bail, in part because of the charges he faces of assaulting federal agents in Maryland earlier this year.

According to court documents in that case, Mr. Floyd was approached by FBI agents at his Maryland home as part of a federal criminal investigation into Donald Trump and his alleged role in the Capitol riot.

The Washington Post reported that the affidavit accused Mr Floyd of physically assaulting and yelling at a customer.

Atlanta Judge Emily Richardson also deemed Mr Floyd a flight risk.

He later hired a lawyer who helped negotiate the $100,000 (£79,000) bond. It is not clear when he will be released.

The online fundraiser, which helped pay for his attorney, Chris Kachoroff, has raised more than $270,000 so far.

The other 18 defendants in the case — including former President Trump and his former attorney Rudy Giuliani — surrendered last week on negotiated bonds, which were processed and quickly released.

Floyd’s lawyer told the BBC that his client was left “rotting in Fulton County Jail” and said Georgia Attorney General Fannie Willis should have helped secure his release.

Jeff DeSantis, a spokesman for Ms. Willis, disagreed.

“Mr. Floyd had the opportunity to obtain a consent bond in the same manner as the other defendants named in the indictment, but he chose not to do so until today,” DeSantis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Fulton County Jail is notoriously unsafe. Six people have died there this year. Last year, an inmate died after he was found unconscious in his cell and covered in bedbugs.

Mr Floyd is one of two black defendants among the 19 charged in the Georgia indictment, and is the former leader of the conservative grassroots organization Black Voices for Trump.

“I can’t get over the sight of the only black man left there,” said his lawyer, Mr. Kachorov.

Mr Floyd isn’t the only defendant in Georgia who has raised concerns about the legal costs they face in connection with the indictment – he told the judge during Friday’s hearing that he couldn’t put his “family into that kind of debt”.

In April, Giuliani visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence to make a “desperate” plea for the former president to help pay his legal bills, according to CBS, the BBC’s media partner.

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