Harrison Floyd: Bond agreement reached for jailed Georgia defendant

The sole defendant in the Georgia election interference case being held in Fulton County Jail is expected to be released five days after his arrest.

It comes after a judge set a bond in his case.

Harrison Floyd’s lawyer told the BBC that his client had not been able to shower during his time in jail and was “concerned” for his personal safety.

The BBC has reached out to Fulton County Jail for comment.

Mr Floyd surrendered on Thursday without a lawyer, at the time choosing to forego legal help over the cost.

Georgia prosecutors allege the 39-year-old former US Marine was part of a plot to pressure an election worker into making false claims about ballot manipulation and election fraud in the state.

He turned himself in late last week without a pre-negotiated bond.

At a hearing on Friday, where he represented himself, his request for bond was denied by a judge, in part because of charges he faces for allegedly assaulting federal agents in Maryland earlier this year.

According to court documents in that case, FBI agents approached Mr Floyd at his Maryland home as part of a federal criminal investigation into Donald Trump and his alleged role in the Capitol riots.

The affidavit accused Mr Floyd of physically assaulting and shouting at an agent, The Washington Post reported.

Atlanta Judge Emily Richardson also considered Mr Floyd a flight risk.

He later retained a lawyer, who helped to negotiate the $100,000 (£79,000) bond. It is unclear when he will be released.

An online fundraiser helping to pay for his lawyer, Chris Kachouroff, has so far raised over $270,000.

The 18 other defendants in the case – including former President Trump and his one-time lawyer Rudy Giuliani – surrendered last week with negotiated bonds in place and were processed and quickly released.

Mr Floyd’s lawyer told the BBC his client was left “rotting in Fulton County Jail”, and argued Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis should have helped secure his release.

Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman Ms Willis, disagreed.

“Mr Floyd has had the opportunity to work out a consent bond in the same manner as the other defendants named in the indictment, but chose not to do so until today,” Mr DiSantis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Fulton County Jail is known as notoriously unsafe. Six people have died there this year. Last year, one inmate died after being found unconscious in his cell, covered in bed bugs.

Mr Floyd is one of two black defendants of the 19 charged in the Georgia indictment and is the former leader of the conservative grassroots organisation Black Voices for Trump.

His lawyer, Mr Kachouroff said: “I just can’t get over the optics of only the black guy left in there.”

Mr Floyd is not the only Georgia defendant to raise concerns over the legal costs they face related to the indictment – he told the judge during his Friday hearing he couldn’t put his “family in that kind of debt”.

In April, Mr Giuliani visited Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence to make a “desperate” plea to ask the former president to help pay his legal bills, according to the BBC’s media partner CBS.