Georgia jail installs barricades as Trump prepares to turn himself in on Thursday or Friday

Fulton County Sheriff deputies stepped up security on Monday, installing barriers around the run-down jailhouse where Donald Trump and his 18 co-conspirators must give themselves up before midday on Friday.

The former president was indicted last week in a racketeering case which accused him and his associates of a wide-ranging plot to reverse his 2020 election defeat.

A date and time has yet to be set for Trump to be booked, but a source familiar with planning said it was likely to be Thursday or Friday.

His team is understood to be negotiating the terms of his surrender with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and were spotted entering her office on Monday.

Details of what might be involved in the talks emerged minutes earlier.

Fulton County Sheriff deputies install security barriers outside the Fulton County Jail on Monday, days after an indictment against Donald Trump and 18 co-conspirators

Trump has until noon Friday to be booked. He is expected to hand himself in on Thursday or Friday, waiting until after Wednesday’s Republican debate which he says he will skip

The first court filings were released detailing bond agreements for co-defendants in the case. 

John Eastman, the lawyer charged with helping orchestrate the former president’s fake elector scheme, has agreed to a $100,000 bond.

The ‘consent bond order,’ published on the Fulton County Superior Court website, requires Eastman to ‘report to pre-trial supervision every 30 days,’ and states that he will ‘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.’

It also emerged that Scott Graham Hall had reached a $10,000 bond agreement. He is the local bail bondsman accused of commandeering voting information in Coffee County, south Georgia. Atlanta News First reported the details.

Defendants in the case are expected to negotiate the terms of their release and bond before being booked at the county jail. It could be more than a week before they appear in court to enter a formal plea. 

Last week’s indictment was the fourth brought against Trump since April. 

Authorities in Fulton County said he can expect no special treatment. He will have to be fingerprinted like other suspects at the notorious jail, and may for the first time have his mugshot taken.

In the meantime, deputies were out on Monday morning preparing for a scrum of media interest and the possibility that protesters could converge on the jail.

Court filings published Monday show that lawyer John Eastman (left) agreed a $100,000 bond deal and Scott Graham Hall reached a $10,000 agreement

John Eastman, the lawyer charged with helping orchestrate the former president’s fake elector scheme, has agreed to a $100,000 bond in the case, according to new court filings

They put up steel barriers around the jail. 

Arrestees are generally fingerprinted at the county’s jail, which is notorious for its squalid conditions, although Trump will not be held there while he awaits trial.

The notorious, insect-ridden facility is being investigated by the Department of Justice after a series of deaths. 

Launching the investigation last month, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia, said: ‘The recent allegations of filthy housing teeming with insects, rampant violence resulting in death and injuries, and officers using excessive force are cause for grave concern and warrant a thorough investigation.’

The latest case against Trump, who is the frontrunner for the Republican 2024 nomination, is laid out in a 98-page indictment.

Deputies prepared Monday for a rush of defendants in the 2020 election case

The sheriff’s department says most people arrested in Fulton County are taken to the main jail on Rice Street, to the northwest of the city center, where conditions are being investigated

It includes details of a phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state urging him to find more votes for him and allegations that an election worker was harassed with false claims of fraud. 

And in one of the most extraordinary examples of attempts to change the outcome, it describes an alleged plot to access voting machines and steal data.

‘The indictment alleges that, rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result,’ said Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week.

She is pushing for a speedy trial. Her proposed schedule would see the trail start on March 4, although that is certain to be challenged by Trump and other defendants.