🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Following his fourth indictment this year, there is ongoing speculation that Donald Trump could be denied bail and kept in custody in Georgia ahead of his arraignment over election interference allegations.
The former president was indicted on Monday under Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' sprawling 2020 election interference probe, along with 18 other defendants. Willis has also asked a judge to schedule arraignments for all defendants for the week of September 5.
Trump, currently the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican primary race, has denied all the accusations and accused Willis of election interference with her probe.
In Trump's other three criminal cases in New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C., the former president was released from custody following his arraignment. However, Georgia has stricter state legal provisions for bail, with the former president having to prove he is not at risk of witness intimidation or a threat to the community before he can be released.
Trump has been accused of witness intimidation with his recent social media comments after suggesting that former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan shouldn't testify to a grand jury just prior to the Fulton County indictment getting announced.
In a post on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, Barbara McQuade, a former Michigan U.S. attorney and legal analyst, shared a screengrab of Trump's remarks against Duncan while suggesting it was "witness tampering in real time."
There have also been suggestions that Trump's rhetoric is influencing his supporters to act, with NBC News recently reporting that the addresses of the grand jury who voted to indict Trump were posted on a fringe website.
But experts have suggested that despite Georgia's strict bail terms, it is highly unlikely that a former president will be held in custody due to his high-profile stature and the nature of the allegations, nor will the actions of others be used against him.
"In making the determination of whether someone should be kept in custody pending trial, the court has to make an assessment of whether, based on the information it has in front of it, that person presents a danger to the community and/or is a flight risk," Lateef Gray, senior attorney at the Pointer & Buelna LLP, Lawyers for the People law firm, told Newsweek.
"Regarding the danger to the community, courts usually look at previous criminal history, particularly convictions, and the nature of the current charges. Former President Trump has no prior convictions and the current charges are nonviolent in nature."
In regards to the suggestions that Trump may be denied bail if his supporters are found to have intimated those linked to the trial, Gray said it would be a "tremendous stretch" to keep the former president in custody based on these terms.
"Unless the court has evidence that Trump is directly responsible for the grand jury doxxing, it is highly unlikely that he will be kept in custody based merely on that," Gray said.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers said while it is "theoretically possible" for Trump to be detained pending trial, no judge is going to take the unprecedented step of jailing a former president who is currently on a campaign trail for the 2024 election.
"Doing so may trigger mass unrest," Rahmani told Newsweek. "Bail or release is usually appropriate unless a defendant is a flight risk or a danger to the community, and Trump is neither. Bail can be denied when a defendant intimidates or influences witnesses while out of custody.
"Trump is going to be given freer rein than the average defendant when it comes to public statements because he is a candidate for president," Rahmani added.
"And most of the judges who have overseen his cases so far have been 'all bark, no bite' when it comes to enforcing their orders. We'll see if they reach the boiling point because of Trump's conduct and they revoke bail or hold him in contempt, but I think it's highly unlikely."
Bradley P. Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security, previously suggested to Newsweek that Trump is "testing the boundaries" with his Truth Social comments, adding that "it would be surprising if those kinds of posts don't show up as a topic of discussion at his arraignment."
It is unclear what, or how many, bail conditions the former president will face once he pleads not guilty to the 13 charges against him in Fulton County, as expected. It is likely that Trump will be released from custody following his arraignment on his own recognizance.
Correction 08/18/23, 9:42 a.m. ET: This article was updated to state that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked to schedule arraignments for the defendants for the week of September 5, not August 25.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more