For the hearing, he might be brought to the Fulton County courthouse via cooperation between the Georgia State Patrol and Florida Highway Patrol. Probably no frog-marching though.
But (more likely), he could waive his appearance at the hearing, and his lawyers would appear on his behalf.
The prosecution could ask for a very high bail, and the judge might confiscate his passport, but apparently the flight risk is very low, due to his high visibility.
My question is though, what happens once the trial is underway? Is he held in a Fulton County jail whenever he’s not in court? If so, is he still allowed access to hairspray and orange makeup?
Also:
5. These are state felony charges, so a Presidential pardon doesn’t apply.
6. In Georgia, the Governor cannot pardon state charges. So unless his lawyers can get the charges dismissed during the hearing, (extremely unlikely), there would be a trial.
It’s an open question whether he would have Secret Service protection during his time in jail.
He almost certainly would have it during the trial, but if he’s convicted and sentenced to prison time, it depends on whether Congress modifies the current Protection act to exclude former Presidents convicted of a felony.
He still has enough friends in the right places to sneak him out of the country, and I wouldn’t bet against him still having enough classified documents to entice a foreign leader to let him “visit” their country for an indefinite period of time.
As you imply, he likely makes bail so he could go wherever the conditions of his release allow when not in court.
People who have not yet been convicted are allowed to appear in normal attire in IIRC every jurisdiction in the country if they choose. Even if he is being held in jail prior, his lawyers can make sure he has time to change and do his hair before his appearance. That is not a trip out to the spray tan site but makeup might still allow him to appear similarly to how he normally does.
I would expect him to be free pending trial, since the Secret Service would always know his whereabouts. I suppose he’d have to surrender his passport
If convicted, I see no need for the Secret Service to accompany him in jail. No way does Kevin McCarthy allow a vote on stripping him of his SS detail, so they’d be assigned elsewhere until he is released.
No matter what, he’s never going behind any bars. At the most house arrest, which he’ll flagrantly violate with no repercussions. If he was ever to go into exile, he’d just say he had no choice- everybody is so unfair to hims.
I don’t think the holding passport thing would work so well with someone with a private jet capable of transcontinental travel and his contacts in such high places. Seems like Biden would need to have some of those balloon downing jets standing by incase the big orange balloon tried to float away.
You got me very excited with the thread title, but how likely is it that this will actually happen? It sounds like they may indict a handful of his underlings, but not Trump.
What prompted this OP? Any news? How I wish. I’m assuming it’s because the Georgia special grand jury is finished and a limited portion of their report released?
One thing to remember is that if he’s convicted (whatever the sentence might be), he can’t be pardoned by a future POTUS because these aren’t federal charges. To me that gives this extra significance that distinguishes it from the other criminal investigations he is subject to.
If it’s a nonviolent felony it can, generally speaking.
Although the rules and laws vary from state to state (as well as in federal court), defendants are typically eligible to participate in home confinement in lieu of pretrial detention or a sentence of incarceration if they’ve been charged with or convicted of misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies, don’t have a history of violent crimes, and haven’t violated previous home detention conditions.
However, it looks to me like Georgia state law requires a criminal to be monitored by a county sheriff if sentenced to house arrest, so he wouldn’t be able to do it in Mar-A-Lago.
He certainly ought to have secret service protection if he ever goes to prison. It would be an international incident if he were killed in a prison brawl, or even seriously injured.