Former US President Donald Trump turned himself in to an Atlanta prison on Thursday night following his criminal charges for trying to reverse his 2020 election defeat in the state of Georgia. During a short procedure, a police photo was taken of him – a historic first ‘mug shot’ of an American president ever.
The 77-year-old former president, who was indicted in Atlanta earlier this month, reported to Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail, a prison notorious for its poor conditions, around 7:30 p.m. (local time). There his fingerprints were taken and he was given a prisoner number: P01135809.
Trump was due to appear before the local sheriff of Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, on thirteen charges against him, including “racketeering‘: he is being prosecuted with eighteen co-defendants for an alleged criminal plot to change the election result in Georgia in his favor. Trump says he is innocent and dismisses the case as politically motivated.
After his arrest, he was released until his arraignment, which is expected in early September. His bail was set at $200,000 in advance.
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Notorious prison
Although Trump has been charged three times in recent months and has had to report to authorities, the procedure in Atlanta was unique: Trump had to report to a local jail for the first time. If convicted, the former president could end up in a cell in the notorious prison.
In recent months, he had to appear in courts in New York, Miami and Washington. Then arrest and arraignment were always done on the same day. In addition, in the other cases, the authorities made an exception for the former president and no police photo was taken of him.
Trump looks angry and intimidating at his mugshot, and according to sources close to the former president, he has thought about this in advance, American media report. Trump published the police photo on Xformerly Twitter, including the words “election interference.”
It was his first tweet since Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the storming of the Washington Capitol by supporters seeking to block the ratification of his opponent Joe Biden’s election victory, following Trump’s persistent claims – without evidence – that the result of the elections would have been rigged. Then Trump was banned from Twitter. Current CEO Elon Musk unlocked his account in November, but Trump had not yet used it.
Line of black cars
The former president and frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election flew from New Jersey to Atlanta on his private jet for the proceedings. He drove in a procession of black cars with police escort to the Fulton County Jail and spent about half an hour there – a shorter period of time than the average suspect. Dozens of supporters of the former president had gathered at the prison.
Trump, who had to report no later than Friday afternoon, had announced the time of his arrest in advance on his social medium Truth Social. The time in the evening would have had to do with avoiding rush hour traffic in Atlanta. But the former president also turned around prime time in the national spotlight – the night after party members took center stage in the first debate of other Republican candidates for president. Trump did not participate in that debate.
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