- By Brandon Drenon
- BBC News, Washington
August 29, 2023
image source, Reuters/Fulton County Sheriff's Office
The sole defendant in the Georgia election interference case being held in the Fulton County Jail is expected to be released five days after his arrest.
This comes after a judge set bail in his case.
Harrison Floyd's lawyer told the BBC that his client was unable to shower during his time in prison and was “concerned” for his personal safety.
The BBC has reached out to the Fulton County Jail for comment.
Mr. Floyd turned himself in without a lawyer on Thursday, choosing at the time to forego legal representation because of the cost.
Georgia prosecutors are accusing the 39-year-old former U.S. Marine of being part of a conspiracy to pressure an election official into making false claims about election manipulation and voter fraud in the state.
He turned himself in late last week without pre-arranged bail.
At a hearing Friday where he represented himself, his request for bail was denied by a judge on, among other things, charges he faces for allegedly assaulting federal agents in Maryland earlier this year.
According to court documents in the case, FBI agents approached Mr. Floyd at his home in Maryland 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 yelling at an agent, The Washington Post reported.
Atlanta Judge Emily Richardson also considered Mr. Floyd a flight risk.
He later hired a lawyer to help him negotiate the $100,000 (£79,000) bail. It is unclear when he will be released.
An online fundraiser to fund his attorney, Chris Kachouroff, has so far raised over $270,000.
The 18 other defendants in the case — including former President Trump and his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani — surrendered last week with negotiated bonds, were processed and quickly released.
Mr Floyd's lawyer told the BBC that his client was “rotting in the Fulton County Jail” and argued that Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis should have helped secure his release.
Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Ms. Willis, disagreed.
“Mr. Floyd had the opportunity to negotiate a plea agreement in the same manner as the other defendants named in the indictment, but to date has chosen not to do so,” Mr. DiSantis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Fulton County Jail is notoriously unsafe. Six people have died there this year. Last year, an inmate died after he was found unconscious and covered in bed bugs in his cell.
Mr. Floyd is one of two black defendants among the 19 defendants in the Georgia indictment and a former leader of the grassroots conservative organization Black Voices for Trump.
His lawyer, Mr. Kachouroff, said: “I just can't get over the optics that it's just the black guy in there.”
Mr Floyd is not the only Georgia defendant to raise concerns about the legal fees he will incur in connection with the charges – he told the judge during his hearing on Friday he could not burden his “family with this type of debt”.
In April, Mr. Giuliani visited Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence to “desperately” ask the former president for help in paying his legal bills, according to the BBC's media partner, CBS.
