Trump Hit With Witness Intimidation Restrictions In Georgia

Trump will post a $200,000 bond and has been ordered to follow a series of witness intimidation restrictions by the judge in his Georgia RICO case.

Read: Samuel Alito Is The Insurrectionist Threat To Democracy On The Supreme Court

Here are the restrictions:

4) The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice. Id. This shall include, but is not limited to, the following:

a. The Defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any codefendant;

b). The Defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any witness including, but not limited to, the individuals designated in the Indictment as an unindicated co-conspirators Individual 1 through Individual 30;

c. The Defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against any victim;

d). The Defendant shall make no direct or indirect threat of any nature against the community or to any property in the community;

e). The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media;

5) The Defendant shall not communicate in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case with any person known to him to be a codefendant in this case except through his or her counsel.

(6) The Defendant shall not communicate in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case with any person known to him to be a witness in this case except through his or her counsel.

Trump has demonstrated that witness intimidation through social media is one of his big go to moves,  and the judge shut that one down quickly.

The question is not if Trump will violate the restrictions, but how long it will take him to violate the restrictions. Gov. Brian Kemp could be a witness in the trial and he was already attacked and threatened today by the former president.

Once Trump violates the restrictions what will the judge do?

I think giving Trump exactly what he doesn’t want is the way to go.

If Trump intimidates witnesses, the judge should move up his trial.

The more Trump misbehaves, the faster the process goes. 

The one advantage that Georgia has over Trump’s previous indictments is that they have seen Trump’s behavior. The judge should know exactly what Trump is going to do. The boundaries have been established, so the only thing missing is the punishment when Trump violates them.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association