Trump co-defendant John Eastman gets $100,000 bail in Georgia election case

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John Eastman, the former Chapman University law professor who was indicted along with former president Donald Trump and 17 other co-conspirators by a Fulton County, Georgia grand jury last week, has been allowed to remain free pending trial on $100,000 bail.

Judge Scott McAfee on Monday granted Mr Eastman’s request for bond, and set an amount of $20,000 on the charge that he allegedly violated Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, with $10,000 bond for each of the remaining eight counts he faces on criminal solicitation, conspiracy, and filing false documents charges.

Mr Eastman, who is currently fighting disbarment proceedings in his home state of California, is required to post ten per cent of that amount, or $10,000, and will be mandated to make monthly reports to Fulton County’s pre-trial supervision officials.

He was also ordered not to “violate the laws of this State, the laws of any other state, the laws of the United States of America, or any other local laws” as a condition of his release.

Additionally, Judge McAfee ordered Mr Eastman to “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,” and forbade him from communicating “in any way, directly or indirectly, about the facts of this case ... except through his or her counsel” with any co-defendant or anyone known to be a witness in the case against him.

Harvey Silvergate, an attorney for the disgraced former professor, said in a statement last week that the charges against his client “set out activity that is political, but not criminal” and opined that Mr Eastman should not have been charged for his role in formulating a plot which former president Donald Trump attempted to implement as a way to remain in office despite losing the 2020 election.