TRUMP CO-DEFENDANT SAYS GEORGIA PROSECUTORS ARE RETALIATING AGAINST HIM FOR REJECTING A PLEA DEAL

Harrison Floyd, one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the election subversion case in Georgia, claimed in a court filing Monday that prosecutors are seeking to revoke his bond as retaliation after he rejected a plea deal.

Prosecutors say Floyd, the leader of Black Voices for Trump, made social media posts against witnesses in the case that “demonstrate that he poses a significant threat of intimidating witnesses.”

A hearing on the motion to revoke Floyd’s bond agreement and potentially send him to jail is set for Tuesday afternoon before Judge Scott McAfee.

Floyd’s attorneys, in a filing Monday, argued that his social media posts did not violate the conditions of his bond and accused prosecutors of a “retaliatory measure because he rejected the State’s plea offer,” and took other steps, such as subpoenaing Fulton County election records.

CNN has reached out to the Fulton County district attorney’s office for comment.

Floyd’s lawyers also argued in the filing that prosecutors were retaliating because he “exercised his First Amendment rights after the State intimated that Mr. Floyd was the ‘leaker’” – a reference to a lawyer for another co-defendant leaking key video evidence to the media.

In a social media post last week, Floyd questioned why his team was accused of leaking the videos even though his own lawyer seemed to admit to the leak in an email chain with prosecutors before saying it was a “typo.”

In his post, Floyd criticized Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman, who is a witness in the case. Prosecutors say the post was among more than a dozen public statements that they say violate the terms of his bond agreement.

Floyd’s attorneys also accused prosecutors of a double standard, pointing out that Trump’s bond order in the same case “specifically mentions social media.”

“A review of President Trump’s social media posts make the State’s decision to go after Harrison Floyd hard to justify,” Floyd’s attorneys wrote, citing several posts from Trump about Sidney Powell, an attorney who recently pleaded guilty in the case, as well as Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff and current co-defendant.

The filing from Floyd comes the same day Trump’s lawyers argued in a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, to strike down a gag order in the election subversion case there.

Floyd’s attorneys argue their client’s social media posts do not contain any threats and not are an attempt to intimidate anyone, adding that his posts “constitute political speech” guaranteed by the First Amendment.

CNN’s Devan Cole and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.

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2023-11-20T23:00:51Z dg43tfdfdgfd