Bail for Trump Set at $200,000 in Georgia Election Interference Case

Bail for Trump Set at $200,000 in Georgia Election Interference Case

 

The move came as it became clear that former President Donald J. Trump and 18 other defendants will be required to pay cash upon being booked in Atlanta this week.

 

Danny Hakim Maggie Haberman Richard Fausset

By Danny Hakim, Maggie Haberman and Richard Fausset

Aug. 21, 2023, 4:46 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/us/trump-bail-georgia-election-case.html

 

Former President Donald J. Trump’s bail was set at $200,000 on Monday in a sprawling racketeering case charging Mr. Trump and 18 associates with election interference in Georgia.

 

The move came as it became clear that Mr. Trump and the other defendants will be required to pay cash upon being booked in Atlanta, which was not the case in the three other criminal cases involving the former president.

 

While defendants have to come up with only 10 percent of the bail amount, even that could prove difficult for some, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former personal lawyer for Mr. Trump, who is running out of money because of an array of legal entanglements he faces.

 

Racketeering cases can be particularly long and costly for defendants — jury selection in another racketeering case in the same court, involving a number of high-profile rappers, has gone on for seven months.

 

The costs clearly worry some of the defendants in the Trump case; one of them, Cathy Latham, a Republican Party official in Georgia who acted as a fake elector for Mr. Trump in 2020, has set up a legal-defense fund, describing herself as “a retired public-school teacher living on a teacher’s pension.” The $3,645 she has initially raised is well short of a $500,000 goal.

 

Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who played a central role in efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election, expressed frustration following her indictment in the case at the looming legal costs.

 

Mr. Trump and the other defendants were indicted last week on charges that they were part of a conspiracy to subvert the election results in Georgia, where Mr. Trump narrowly lost to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

 

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials in Atlanta have emphasized a desire to treat the defendants as other accused felons would typically be treated in the city’s criminal justice system, with mug shots, fingerprinting and cash bails. But the Secret Service is sure to have security demands regarding the booking of a former president, expected for later this week.

 

Sean Keenan contributed reporting from Atlanta.

 

Danny Hakim is an investigative reporter. He has been a European economics correspondent and bureau chief in Albany and Detroit. He was also a lead reporter on the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. More about Danny Hakim

 

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent and the author of “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. More about Maggie Haberman

 

Richard Fausset is a correspondent based in Atlanta. He mainly writes about the American South, focusing on politics, culture, race, poverty and criminal justice. He previously worked at The Los Angeles Times, including as a foreign correspondent in Mexico City. More about Richard Fausset