Former US president Donald Trump says he will surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face charges of scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
“Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED,” Mr Trump wrote on his social media network Truth Social on Monday, hours after his bond was set at $200,000.
It is the fourth different case against Mr Trump’s since April, when he became the first former president in US history to face indictment.
Since then the former president who remains the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has had a procession of bookings and arraignments in jurisdictions across the country.
His appearances in New York, Florida and Washington DC have drawn enormous media attention with news helicopters tracking his every move.
Mr Trump’s announcement came hours after his attorneys met with prosecutors in Atlanta to discuss the details of his release on bond.
The former US president is barred from intimidating co-defendants, witnesses or victims in the case — including on social media — according to the bond agreement signed by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, Mr Trump’s defence attorneys and the judge. It explicitly includes “posts on social media or reposts of posts” made by others.
Mr Trump has repeatedly used social media to attack people involved in the criminal cases against him as he campaigns to reclaim the White House in 2024.
He has been railing against Ms Willis since before he was indicted, and singled out Georgia governor Brian Kemp — a Republican who rebuffed his efforts to overturn the election — by name in a social media post on Monday morning.
The agreement prohibits the former president from making any “direct or indirect threat of any nature” against witnesses or co-defendants, and from communicating in any way about the facts of the case with them, except through attorneys.
The order sets Mr Trump’s bond for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations — or RICO — charge at $80,000 and adds $10,000 for each of the 12 other counts he is facing. Bond is the amount defendants must pay as a form of collateral to ensure they show up for required court appearances.
Ms Willis set a deadline of noon on Friday for Mr Trump and his 18 co-defendants to turn themselves. The prosecutor has proposed that arraignments for the defendants follow during the week of September 5th.
She has said she wants to try the defendants collectively and bring the case to trial in March, which would put it in the heat of the presidential nominating season.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing. A phone message seeking comment was also left for an attorney for the former president.
Mr Trump’s appearance in Georgia will come a day after the first Republican primary debate, which he has decided to skip.
He is expected to turn himself in at the Fulton County jail, which has long been plagued with problems.
The Department of Justice last month opened a civil rights investigation into conditions, citing filthy cells, violence and the death last year of a man whose body was found covered in insects in the main jail’s psychiatric wing. Three people have died in Fulton County custody in the past month.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Monday that when Mr Trump surrenders there will be a “hard lockdown” of the area surrounding the jail.
Mr Trump is not expected to spend much time there.
