Donald Trump’s bail conditions in Fulton County might take him down before anything else
Donald Trump was assigned a $200,000 bond in Fulton County today. That’s a big deal symbolically: the supposed Republican “frontrunner” for President now has to make bail. But as a practical matter, the conditions of his release are a bigger deal than the dollar amount assigned to his release.
The courts in Georgia have given Trump very specific conditions of his release. Not only is he prohibited from making any threatening social media posts, he’s also specifically prohibited from sharing anyone else’s threatening posts. This closes off a loophole that Trump has been trying to exploit on Truth Social, where he shares other people’s posts in order to drive his agenda, while technically being able to claim that the words weren’t his.
But when it comes to Trump’s bail in Georgia, it’s not just the letter of the law, to speak. It’s how quick the courts in Georgia are to revoke bail in general. Today’s bail conditions laid down for Trump make clear that he’s not being given any special privilege or parameters. That in turn makes clear that the conditions of his bail will be enforced the same as they would against anyone else.
Republicans in Georgia have set up the place as a “law and order” state so they could campaign on how tough they are on crime. The easily revoked bail, the horrific jail conditions, even the televised trials are all a part of that narrative. And yet in the end, all that Georgia Republicans have done is make it easier for Trump to be taken down.
When Trump is hit with explicit restrictions on his behavior, he has a tendency to cower for a bit. But then sooner or later he goes back to being his usual self. How long before Trump decides to try to figure out a way to work around his Georgia bail conditions? The conditions placed on his social media behavior are so strict and specific, and bail is so easily revoked in Georgia, any attempt on his part at working around it all is likely to simply land him in the slammer.
There are different points of view about which of Trump’s criminal trials will lead to a conviction first and thus put him in prison first. But when it comes to which criminal charges against him might get him locked up before he can even get to trial, Georgia sure looks promising.
