Scott G Hall

Scott G. Hall harnessed personal and political connections as the stepbrother of David Bossie’s wife and the owner of one of Georgia’s biggest bail bonds businesses to establish himself as a link between little known activists and authority figures in the federal government. Hall, a bail bondsman from the Augusta area, “has been looking into the election on behalf of the President,” Georgia’s Republican Party chairman told party officials in a Nov. 20 2020 email reviewed by The Washington Post. Hall was doing so, added the state chairman, “at the request of David Bossie,” the Republican operative, onetime deputy Trump campaign manager and chairman of the conservative activist group Citizens United". Six weeks later, Hall had the ear of Jeffrey Clark, a senior Justice Department official, according to Atlanta area prosecutors. Hall’s words, delivered in a 63-minute phone call on Jan. 2, carried weight. Clark would later cite the conversation as part of his push to use Justice Department authority to delegitimize the Georgia election. A few days later, Hall was part of a cadre of Trump loyalists who allegedly descended on Coffee County, population 43,000, in Georgia to gain access to sensitive election data. He later boasted of his efforts, saying, “we scanned every freaking ballot.” Hall’s alleged actions are detailed in the indictment brought last month by the Fulton County district attorney, Fani T. Willis, against Hall, Trump and 17 other defendants. The indictment portrays the bondsman, who makes his living by posting bail for defendants in exchange for a fee, as more central to Trump’s efforts to cling to power than previously known. Hall is the chief executive of Anytime Bail Bonding, in operation since 1994. It has 45 employees in 11 offices that serve 31 counties throughout the state, including populous Fulton County, which includes Atlanta. Since its founding, the filing states, the company has executed more than 200,000 bonds with a total liability of over $834 million. In 2012, Hall was elected president of the national industry group representing bail bondsmen, the Professional Bail Agents of the United States. He also served as vice president of the state industry lobbying group, the Georgia Association of Professional Bondsmen. Those roles offered him clout in Atlanta and connections to state power brokers.