• @Sky_Lobster@lemmy.world
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    9210 months ago

    Yeah, but $200,000 for Trump feels like a joke. It should be more in line with his income to be meaningful.

    • sab
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      5010 months ago

      Well, judging by his tax returns his income isn’t much to brag about.

      • @Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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        2610 months ago

        Dude has millions of runes donating to his campaign/defense fund now. Campaign finance was already a corrupt joke in this country, but he’s taken it to a new level.

        • @WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          Exactly. If he wasn’t rich before he is now just from his campaign funds.

          And from charging the SS for room and board.

          • @nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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            10 months ago

            I don’t think he handed out those state secrets for free either. They at least paid for rooms in his hotel.

    • @Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      1610 months ago

      To be honest it probably is just he continues to spew his is a billionaire so it should be a billion dollars see what happens. 200k is a joke.

      • @Gatsby@discuss.online
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        10 months ago

        That was probably true before he became President but I doubt it is anymore. He spent his entire term lining his pockets with as much taxpayer money as possible… And that’s not even taking into account the fact that he’s been campaigning this entire time to fund his legal defense against the numerous criminal and civil cases against him.

    • Nougat
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      -210 months ago

      And in Georgia, you only have to post 10%.

      • @cerevant@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I keep seeing this, so I wanted to clear up some details:

        • Bail isn’t a penalty, it is an incentive to return for trial (to get your money back). Bail was waived for Trump in previous cases because not only is he constantly followed by Secret Service, he is a high profile person who won’t be able to hide for long anywhere in the world.
        • Bail is typically a tenth (or less) of what Trump was given for even some violent felonies.
        • You must pay the entire amount to be released on bail, unless you get a bail bond.
        • A bail bond is when a third party agrees to pay the bail amount if you do not show up for trial. The 10% frequently cited is a fee to the bail bondsman for taking this risk. You still have to provide some kind of collateral to the bondsman to cover the remainder of the bail amount.
        • You don’t get the 10% back. If you have the cash to cover bail, it makes sense to use it because then you can get it all back.

        Trump getting a bail bond would be a public admission that he doesn’t have the cash. He’ll find the cash.

        • Nougat
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          10 months ago

          You must pay the entire amount to be released on bail, unless you get a bail bond.

          Reporting I’ve seen is that in the jurisdiction which Trump is charged in Georgia, you only have to post 10% to the court. Presumably, if you then abscond, you are on the hook for the remainder.

          EDIT: Reporting I have seen appears to be wrong; parent commenter appears to be correct:

          https://fultoncountyga.gov/inside-fulton-county/fulton-county-departments/sheriff/law-enforcement/bond-administration-unit

          Another edit:

          Hmm. I’m looking at Eastman’s jail record, and all of his charges say “Disposition: 10% bond.” So I really don’t know.

          • @cerevant@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Yeah, I looked over the article and they say this, but I can’t find a single reference to that program outside of articles about Trump. Odd.

            Even the article doesn’t say if the 10% is returned. Maybe the FC Sheriff has in-house bail bonding.

            • Nougat
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              310 months ago

              I saw your initial reply and looked into it, edited the above. I think you’re right and the reporting is wrong. I’ve seen wrong reporting on other aspects of this situation, too, so this is not a surprise to me. That’s why my initial reply was in reference to “reporting I’ve seen.” I already had my doubts.

          • @thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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            110 months ago

            No they aren’t. The 10% is the fee you pay the bail bondsmen to put up the entire amount so you can get out of jail. The courts need the entire amount before they’ll let you go, but you don’t have to go through a bondsman.

            • @kablammy@sh.itjust.works
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              10 months ago

              Is the entire bond amount forfeited when the defendant doesn’t turn up, or is it returned if they are later caught? Like if Trump pays $20K to the bondsman, the bondsman posts the $200K to the court, and Trump runs - presumably the bondsman sends a bounty hunter after him (paid out of the $20K?) so when they hand Trump in the bondsman gets their $200K back (but now has less than $20K profit)?

            • Miasmal
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              110 months ago

              From the link:

              The bond agreement, which also states Trump must not attempt to intimidate any potential witnesses, said that the former president can post bond as cash, commercial surety or through Fulton County’s Jail 10 percent program, whereby Trump can pay 10 percent of the bail if agreed by the Fulton County Sheriff’s office.

              Is that the same thing? Is the county providing bond services?

              • @cerevant@lemm.ee
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                210 months ago

                Not clear. I searched and cannot find any reference to this program. I’m going to guess they do bonds in-house, and this is the standard fee. Otherwise it would undermine the bail set by the judge.

              • @thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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                110 months ago

                Yeah, the county is providing the bond services, but there’s been some doubt about that excerpt since that information is apparently only found in the news articles about Trump.

  • @blue_zephyr@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I hope he doesn’t. He’ll bury himself into a mountain of new trouble. But even he is not that stupid.

    Or maybe he’ll flee to Russia. Which is fine for me too, let him expose himself as a traitor and eliminate the possibility of holding office again.

  • @Steeve@lemmy.ca
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    5810 months ago

    Does it feel like the news is all opinion pieces these days? All I see is “someone said something on Twitter” lately.

    • @SheeEttin@lemmy.world
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      3310 months ago

      This is the politics community, not news, so opinion pieces are fair game.

      But yeah, even so, I hate how even “news” articles are “elon posted something on twitter”.

      • @itsJoelle@lemmy.world
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        410 months ago

        I suspect it’s a function of engagement. Trump’s edictments are hot, so some will click on anything vaguely related to it. Even reporting on chirping does the trick since people want more of the “story” even though it’s not a development.

    • @PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world
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      1210 months ago

      The steep decline in money available to publishers means that they’re going to cut reporting in favor of paying an intern to copy and paste off of twitter. You end up with twenty different publications summarizing the same AP article with one paragraph, the. a dozen hot takes on twitter by people you’ve never heard of.

      And we’re reaching the point where they don’t even need the intern to do it.

    • StarServal
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      510 months ago

      What? You don’t want to hear about the latest thing Elon Musk said/did on/with Twitter?

    • @Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      410 months ago

      It’s the 24-hour news cycle and the drive for constant content. Nothing of value just content. They’ll tell you the same thing thousands of times. Over and over again drilling it into you. Reporting on he said she said inanity. In Pursuit of an agenda.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    1910 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The $200,000 bond approved for Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case is significant as it suggests the former president “cannot be trusted” to surrender to authorities for processing, according to a legal expert.

    Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee approved the amount for the former president on Monday, the first time Trump has been asked to post bond in any of the four criminal cases he is involved in.

    Discussing the bond arrangement, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman said that while the amount of money is not an issue for the former president, it is noteworthy that Judge McAfee should take steps to ensure that Trump does hand himself in.

    But the bigger provision is the anti tampering condition—he can’t do anything to intimidate any co-deft or witness or otherwise obstruct the administration of justice," Litman posted on X, formerly Twitter.

    The former president is not allowed to communicate with witnesses or any of the 18 other co-defendants in the case, which includes his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his ex-personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, except through his lawyers.

    Trump was previously accused of witness intimidation via his Truth Social posts by legal experts after suggesting that former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan shouldn’t testify to a grand jury just prior to the Fulton County indictment being announced.


    The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 226 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • @randon31415@lemmy.world
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      1510 months ago

      More like: Trump violates bond condition, new bond set, Trump appeals new bond saying that conditions violate his free speech, all lawyers working for him ask for a delay in other trials because of this appeal.

    • sab
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      10 months ago

      You might need to update your list of countries outside of the US’ sphere of influence - those are both close allies. :)

      • @Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yes and no

        Close allies? Yes

        Able and willing to tell the US to fuck off if they feel like it? Also yes.

        Both also have a lot of power/sway over the US.

        • sab
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          610 months ago

          Sure - but I doubt they’d use that to protect trump’s sorry ass. :)

  • theodewere
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    10 months ago

    “… something of an indignity that he has to post something”

    LAWL… that a former PRESIDENT has to post BOND because he’s considered at risk of fleeing the REPUBLIC… yeah, something of an indignity… that’s exactly what Washington would have said…

    on racketeering charges no less… while still in office… against a state…

    if you trusted him your head is on upside down AND backwards… get a friend or a priest to knock it off for you, so you can put it back on straight…

  • @phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    910 months ago

    Meh. Random lawyer saying things.

    Then again, this is trump and you know he’s dumb as a rock and always ready to put up a show.

    Then again, please please don’t show up. I want to watch a SWAT team kick in his door and drag him out screaming “I thought this was America! MAGAFLGHH” and then a cop puts a knee in his neck. I know, will never happen, bit wouldn’t that be fun for a change

  • @ooklamok@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    He will just to be a martyr and bask in it.

    Plus the mug shot will be plastered all over his campaign as a badge of pride and people will buy tons of merch with it.