By A Trump supporter indicted last week in Fulton County, Ga., for allegedly harassing an election worker was charged earlier this year with attacking an FBI agent working on the Justice Department’s parallel investigation of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
The arrest of Harrison William Prescott Floyd III, which has not been previously reported, offers new information about the breadth of the federal probe led by special counsel Jack Smith, who has charged former president Donald Trump for allegedly attempting to obstruct Joe Biden’s election victory.
It could also complicate any bail agreement for Floyd in Fulton County, where District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) has said he and the 18 others indicted on state-level charges last week — a group that includes Trump — must surrender by Friday or risk being arrested.
Floyd, 39, also known as Willie Lewis Floyd III, is a little-known player who helped run Trump’s 2020 campaign outreach to Black voters. An online member profile and Q-and-A posted by the University Club of Washington in November 2021 describes him as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran whose assignments included roles as a machine gunner, combat marksmanship trainer and martial arts instructor.
He has not responded to phone and email requests for comment. Carlos J.R. Salvado, the attorney representing Floyd in Maryland on charges of assaulting a federal officer, declined to comment.
Agents went to Floyd’s apartment in Rockville, Md., on Feb. 23 to serve a grand jury subpoena, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The agents were delivering the subpoena as part of Smith’s investigation of efforts by Trump and his supporters to undo the results of the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the investigation. The subpoena sought Floyd’s appearance before a federal grand jury in Washington.
The affidavit accuses Floyd of body-slamming an agent and hurling expletives at the agent and his colleague.
“WHO THE F— DO YOU THINK YOU ARE,” Floyd allegedly screamed, standing “chest to chest” with an agent after knocking him backward with his body.
In Georgia, Floyd is charged with racketeering, conspiracy to solicit false statements and influencing witnesses. The charges stem from his alleged efforts alongside a professional publicist and a preacher to pressure a local election worker, Ruby Freeman, into falsely confessing to election crimes that she did not commit. Freeman was the target of repeated lies by Trump and his supporters in the days and weeks after the 2020 election. The former president mentioned her 18 times in a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, at one point calling her a “professional vote scammer and hustler.”
On Aug. 11, three days before he was indicted in the Georgia case, Floyd responded online to a social media post about the case, writing, “The receipts dont lie, and the best is yet to come.”
In 2019 and 2020, Floyd helped lead the Trump campaign’s Black Voices for Trump, seeking to bolster support for the then-president’s reelection bid. Floyd announced a run for Congress in Georgia in 2019 but dropped out of the race within weeks. An ad for his short-lived campaign included images of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) before showing footage of Floyd shooting a weapon.
“I’ll fight socialists in Congress the same way I fought terrorists in the desert,” he said in the campaign video.
After allegedly attacking the agent in February, Floyd was arrested by local police, according to the affidavit. He was charged by federal authorities in May. Under conditions set by the federal magistrate, Floyd was ordered to surrender his passport and was barred from possessing weapons.
The agents went to the apartment complex, in a suburb of Washington, after Floyd’s in-laws told agents where he lived. At various points, they spoke to Floyd by phone and through an apartment call box, according to the affidavit, recording their interactions.
They later learned that Floyd’s mother-in-law texted him copies of the agents’ FBI business cards and let him know they wanted to talk to him. Floyd repeatedly asked if the agents had evidence of a crime and said he was busy caring for his daughter, the affidavit says. He also asked the agents to stop calling him.
“Ok we will see you soon,” the agent who was later attacked responded to Floyd during one conversation, according to the affidavit.
Thirty minutes later, after seeing Floyd walk toward the apartment entrance while holding his daughter, the agents spoke to Floyd again. An agent held out the subpoena and asked Floyd to take it, but he refused, the affidavit says.
The agents followed Floyd into the apartment building’s stairwell, stating, “Sir, I’m going to walk up behind you here, and we’re going to leave the subpoena right at the front door.”
One offered to discuss the subpoena with him and answer questions, adding, “We’re really sorry to bother you.”
Floyd responded, “Bro I don’t even know who you are,” according to the affidavit. “You’re two random guys who are following me up here, into my house, with my daughter. You’re not showing me a f—— badge, you haven’t shown me s—. Get the f— away from me.”
An agent held out his FBI credentials, but Floyd did not look at them, the affidavit says. He instead opened his apartment door then slammed it shut. As the door closed, an agent tossed the subpoena, which lodged between the door and its frame. The agents turned to leave.
They heard yelling and saw Floyd running down the stairs toward them.
The affidavit says Floyd rushed toward the agents and ran into one of them, jabbing a finger in his face and continuing to scream expletives. Floyd backed away when he saw that the other agent was reaching toward his weapon, the document says.
After the agents left, Floyd called 911 and reported that two men had “accosted him,” “followed him into his house,” were “threatening him” and were “throwing stuff” at him, according to the affidavit. He said during that call, which was recorded, that “one of them had a gun.” Floyd later told local police that he had shut the door on the men so that he could go to his kitchen to “get a weapon,” the affidavit says.
The affidavit also says Floyd told police he didn’t know what the subpoena was and said the agents had “touched me” as they followed him up the stairs to his apartment. He said that they had not introduced themselves and that he “didn’t know if they were reporters.”
Smith’s indictment of Trump for his actions after the 2020 election is more narrowly focused than the Fulton County charges brought by Willis. But the federal investigation also has been far-reaching. Smith has examined in great detail the activities of Trump’s campaign, his political action committee, and other people and groups, looking at the ways people linked to Trump lied about the election results and tried to use those lies to make state, local and federal officials alter the vote’s outcome.
According to the Georgia indictment, Illinois pastor Stephen Lee asked Floyd to help contact Freeman after Lee knocked on her door, allegedly hoping to persuade Freeman to falsely say there had been fraud in the election. Lee told Floyd that Freeman would not talk to him because he is a White man, according to the indictment, and said he wanted Floyd’s assistance. Both Floyd and Freeman are Black.
Floyd recruited publicist Trevian Kutti, who also is Black, to travel from Chicago to the Atlanta area to meet with Freeman, according to the indictment. Kutti allegedly told Freeman, who was facing death threats after being falsely accused by Trump of manipulating votes, that she was in danger and asked her to meet her at a police station. They met, and Kutti told Freeman she could move her to a secure location because in about 48 hours actions would be taken that would “disrupt your freedom,” according to police body-camera footage that was first reported by Reuters.
“You are a loose end for a party that needs to tidy up,” Kutti told Freeman, according to the footage.
Lee and Kutti were also charged in Fulton County with racketeering and other crimes. A woman who answered Kutti’s phone on Tuesday identified herself as an assistant and declined to comment. An attorney for Lee said the activities he is accused of, such as knocking on doors and participating in phone calls, are not crimes.
An attorney for Freeman declined to comment.
Alice Crites, Dan Lamothe and Perry Stein contributed to this report.