Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the sweeping election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies, is not allowing co-defendant Harrison Floyd to work for Trump’s 2024 campaign.
McAfee denied Floyd’s request to revise his bond agreement in a short order on Thursday. Floyd, who led Black Voices for Trump four years ago, asked the judge last month to loosen the conditions of his bond so that he could work on Trump’s presidential campaign and speak about Trump on social media. McAfee had said, at the time, that he’d be open to modifications so that Floyd could speak about current events.
Floyd, a senior campaign staffer for Trump’s 2020 campaign, was indicted alongside the former president and 17 others for violating Georgia’s racketeering laws in August. Floyd was also charged with influencing a witness and conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements. Trump and Floyd have both pleaded not guilty.
According to the indictment, Floyd allegedly harassed Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman after she refused to change the results of the county’s vote in the 2020 election.
He was the only one of the 19 defendants in the case to spend time behind bars at the Fulton County Jail. Floyd, unlike the other defendants, turned himself in without a lawyer or bond agreement on August 24. He was not released until August 30 after his lawyer negotiated a $100,000 bond.
Floyd is also facing federal charges for allegedly assaulting two FBI agents who were sent to serve him with a grand jury subpoena.
In November, McAfee had rejected a call from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis‘ office to revoke Floyd’s bond and jail him, citing recent social media posts that prosecutors said “demonstrate that he poses a significant threat of intimidating witnesses.” McAfee found no intimidation in any of those posts but found a technical violation because Floyd tagged witnesses in the posts. As a result, he banned Floyd from making any posts about those involved in the Georgia case.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last month that Floyd attorney Christopher Kachouroff told McAfee his client wanted to resume his role as a paid Trump campaign operative, which would involve communications with the former president or other co-defendants in the case.
Kachouroff also said Floyd wanted to speak about his case over social media to help raise money for his legal defense. Many of the other co-defendants have started crowdsourcing donations for their legal fees.
