The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Judge: Harrison Floyd can work for Trump

- Staff writer Tamar Hallerman contribute­d to this report. By David Wickert dwickert@ajc.com

A defendant in the Georgia election interferen­ce case is free to work for Donald Trump’s presidenti­al campaign, a judge has ruled.

Harrison Floyd served as head of Black Voices for Trump during the 2020 presidenti­al election. Now he and the former president are co-defendants in the election case — charged in Fulton County for their roles in an alleged plot to steal the election from Democrat Joe Biden.

As a condition of his bond, Floyd is barred from having direct or indirect contact with his co-defendants. He asked Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to modify that restrictio­n so he could resume his work for Trump. On Feb. 23, McAfee granted that request, though Floyd apparently didn’t find out until last week.

“I can work on the Trump 2024?” Floyd wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) March 22. “Why am I just now finding out about this ... a MONTH LATER!”

The criminal charges against the former and possibly future president have gained national attention. But Floyd’s behavior in recent months has garnered plenty of attention, too.

Floyd faces three felony counts for allegedly pressuring Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman to confess to false voting fraud allegation­s. In August, he became the only one of the 19 people charged in the case to spend time in jail because he initially did not post bond. He finally posted bond and was released after five days.

In November, prosecutor­s sought to revoke Floyd’s bond, citing social media posts that some witnesses and co-defendants believed were meant to intimidate them. McAfee declined to revoke the bond, but he prohibited Floyd from speaking publicly or making social media posts about witnesses or defendants in the case.

At a February hearing, Floyd’s attorneys sought to relax his bond restrictio­ns. They said he wanted to resume his work for Trump’s campaign — work they said that might require him to have some contact with Trump or other defendants.

McAfee’s Feb. 23 order allows Floyd to have indirect — but not direct — contact with Trump about his employment, but it specifies that “any indirect contact shall not include the alleged facts of this case.” Floyd still is prohibited from having direct or indirect contact with other co-defendants or witnesses in the case.

It’s unclear why Floyd apparently didn’t learn about the relaxed bond requiremen­ts for weeks. A cyberattac­k has disrupted Fulton County’s regular online court documents site, but the county has establishe­d an alternate site that is intermitte­ntly updated. The bond order appears to have been posted on that site Feb. 27.

Chris Kachouroff, one of Floyd’s attorney, said he had “no idea why we did not get timely notice.” Kachouroff said Floyd has not yet resumed work for Trump’s campaign but intends to.

 ?? AP ?? Harrison Floyd had asked that he be allowed to work for Donald Trump’s campaign.
AP Harrison Floyd had asked that he be allowed to work for Donald Trump’s campaign.

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