By Yasmeen Freightman
The two Black indicted individuals accused of conspiring to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia surrendered themselves at an Atlanta jail this week.
However, questions are circling about why one of them was the only person out of all 19 defendants not to receive a bond agreement and forced to remain in jail.
Trevian Kutti, the former publicist of R. Kelly and Kanye West, as well as Harrison Floyd, the former director of Black Voices for Trump, were both booked and processed into the Fulton County Jail just one day before the Friday surrender deadline.
Both Kutti and Floyd face the same charges, including violating the Georgia RICO Act and influencing witnesses in a large-scale criminal case involving Trump and more than a dozen of his allies and associates.
They were both indicted after prosecutors found evidence linking them to an alleged attempt to intimidate and pressure a Fulton County election worker into falsely admitting that she stole votes during the election.
Most defendants’ bond agreements were set at five- and six-figure sums. Trump’s order was a bit more restrictive, with some with special terms on his social media use.
While Kutti was granted a $75,000 bond for her release, Floyd wasn’t provided a pre-arranged bond order or terms of release at all. So he had to spend the first night after his arrest in a jail cell before seeing a judge the following day. That hearing did not go well for Floyd.
Floyd had a hearing in front of Superior Court Judge Emily Richardson at Fulton County courtroom Friday afternoon. “The issue of bond will not be addressed today; that is going to be addressed by Judge [Scott] McAfee, who is assigned to your case,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Richardson told Floyd during his appearance. The Maryland man told the judge he has no attorney and hiring one would cost him $40,000 to $60,000, money he said he doesn’t have.
“I cannot afford an attorney,” the AJC reports Floyd told Richardson, to which she replied that he will have to work out an arrangement to represent himself with Judge McAfee.
The absence of a bond deal is connected to a recent run-in with the law in May in which Floyd is charged with assaulting an FBI agent. Floyd faces federal charges stemming from an aggressive confrontation with two FBI agents sent to serve him a grand jury summons in Maryland.
Those charges — which Floyd pointed out during his hearing are misdemeanors — were grounds to keep him behind bars for now, Judge Richardson ruled. Floyd contended during his appearance that he was no flight risk — “I’ve had no issue with being on pre-trial supervision, there is no way I’m a flight risk, I showed up here before the president was here” — but Richardson was not swayed, the AJC reports.
For now, he will have remain behind bars, as it is unclear as of this writing when Floyd will appear before Judge McAfee.
Social users had various reactions to news of Kutti’s and Floyd’s arrests.
