Donald Trump To Surrender Thursday In Georgia For Alleged Efforts To Overturn 2020 Election. Here’s What You Should Know

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By Melissa Noel ·Updated August 22, 2023

Former President Donald Trump says he will surrender to Georgia authorities on Thursday to face charges that accuse him of illegally plotting to overturn his election loss in the state in 2020.

Trump confirmed the plans for his surrender on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday. “Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED by a Radical Left District Attorney, Fani Willis,” he wrote online.

Trump’s surrender at the Fulton County Jail will mark his fourth arrest since April, when he became the first former president in U.S. history to face indictment. Since then, Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, has been booked and arraigned in jurisdictions across the country, including New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C.

According to the Associated Press, Trump’s announcement came just hours after his attorneys met with prosecutors in Atlanta to discuss the details of his release on bond.

A bond agreement signed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Trump’s attorneys, and the judge prohibits the former president from intimidating co-defendants, witnesses, or victims in the case. The agreement explicitly includes “posts on social media or reposts of posts” made by others.

According to the AP, the agreement also 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.

As Fulton County officials await the surrender of Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants, employees with the sheriff’s office are being threatened, CNN reports. Employees of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and their homes have been threatened due to their role in the surrender of the former president.

ESSENCE previously reported that District Attorney Willis, a Black woman, has recieved racist threats, including one email with the subject line that read “Fani Willis = Corrupt N*****.” The body of the email said, “You are going to fail, you Jim Crow Democrat wh**e.”

Willis has warned state officials to “stay alert.”

Trump and his 18 co-defendants have until noon Friday to turn themselves in to be booked.

The prosecutor has suggested that the co-defendants be arraigned during the week of Sept. 5. Ultimately, the prosecutor wants all defendants tried together in March next year, which would coincide with the prime time of the presidential nomination season.

Trump’s surrender in Georgia will come a day after the first Republican primary debate, which he has said he will not attend.