Donald Trump's co-defendant in a wide-ranging election fraud case in Georgia remained in jail on Friday, after he told a judge that he could not afford a private attorney and was denied bond.
Harrison Floyd appeared virtually before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Emily Richardson and said he could not pay for the costly services of a private lawyer.
"I cannot afford an attorney for something like this," he said, telling the judge that he did not want to put his family in debt.
Judge Richardson said Floyd could either hire a lawyer or represent himself, which left him no choice but to remain in jail, which is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for violence and unsanitary conditions, including the deaths of 15 inmates last year.
The 18 other defendants in the case, including Donald Trump, have all posted bond, ranging from two hundred thousand dollars for Trump to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for Rudolph Giuliani, to ten thousand dollars for Misty Hampton, a former election supervisor in a rural Georgia county who is accused of tampering with voting equipment.
Trump and the 17 others were charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis with 13 felony counts, among them racketeering for pressuring state officials to reverse his 2020 election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Democratic President Joe Biden's victory.
Floyd has been charged with taking part in a scheme to pressure an election worker to falsely admit to voting fraud. In a separate case, he was arrested in Maryland in May for assaulting FBI agents attempting to serve him with a subpoena, court records show.
Trump's legal team has yet to propose a trial date for this case, but other defendants, like lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro have proposed starting their trials early, by November 3rd and October 23rd respectively, as is allowed under Georgia law.
On Thursday evening, Trump was processed at the jail and captured in a mug shot, the first of a former president in U.S. history. He accused District Attorney Willis of prosecuting him out of political motivations, "What has taken place here is a travesty of justice," he said.
However, the four criminal cases against him have not seemed to harm his chances in the Republican nomination for the 2024 election. The latest polls indicate a commanding lead for his candidacy.