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(Reuters) - Donald Trump's mug shot was released on Thursday evening after he was booked at an Atlanta jail on more than a dozen felony charges as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former U.S. president's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
An unsmiling Trump - inmate no. P01135809, according to Fulton County Jail records - was captured glaring at the camera in the mug shot. The image represented yet another extraordinary moment for Trump, who did not have to submit to a photograph when making appearances in his three other criminal cases.
https://t.co/MlIKklPSJT pic.twitter.com/Mcbf2xozsY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2023
He wasted little time trying to turn it to his advantage, posting it on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, as well as his own social media site, Truth Social. His campaign website featured the mug shot along with a message from Trump defending his actions and asking for donations.
The X post appeared to be Trump's first on the site since his account was banned after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. X owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump's account late last year.
Trump spent only about 20 minutes at the jail before heading back to his New Jersey golf club. Before boarding his private plane at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, he repeated his claim that the prosecution - along with the others he faces - is politically motivated.
"What has taken place here is a travesty of justice," he told reporters. "I did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it."
Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, even as he mounts another campaign for the White House next year.
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Dozens of supporters, waving Trump banners and American flags, jostled for a glimpse as Trump arrived at the jail. Among the Trump backers gathered outside was Georgia U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the former president's most loyal congressional allies.
Lyle Rayworth, 49, who is in the aviation industry in the Atlanta area, had been waiting near the jailhouse for 10 hours, since early on Thursday.
"Yeah, I'm hoping he sees me waving the flags, showing support," Rayworth said as he awaited Trump's arrival. "He needs us."
The image is certain to be circulated widely by Trump's foes and supporters alike.
'A MORE POPULAR IMAGE THAN THE MONA LISA'
"We want to put it on a T-shirt. It will go worldwide. It will be a more popular image than the Mona Lisa," said Laura Loomer, 30, a Republican former congressional candidate who mingled with other Trump supporters outside the jail on Thursday morning.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is shown in a police booking mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, after a Grand Jury brought back indictments against him and 18 of his allies in their attempt to overturn the state's 2020 election results in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., August 24, 2023. Fulton County Sheriff's Office/Handout
Judge Scott McAfee set a trial date of Oct. 23 for one of Trump's 18 co-defendants, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed that date in response to Chesebro's request for a speedy trial. The judge's order said the schedule does not yet apply to Trump or any of the other defendants.
Eleven of his co-defendants already have been booked, according to authorities. Some, like Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, were stone-faced in their mug shots, while others, such as lawyer Jenna Ellis, smiled for the camera.
All 19 defendants faced a Friday deadline to surrender. Court records showed that Mark Meadows, who served as Trump's White House chief of staff, was processed at the jail on Thursday.
The jail has a reputation for grim conditions that have inspired rap songs and prompted an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
Trump faces 13 felony counts in the Georgia case, including racketeering, which is typically used to target organized crime, for pressuring state officials to reverse his election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Biden's 2020 victory.
TRIAL DATE WRANGLING
Willis originally proposed a trial date of March 4 but moved it up for Chesebro after he asked that his trial start by October. Trump's legal team has yet to propose a date but is expected to push for a much later start. On Thursday, his newest Atlanta lawyer, Steven Sadow, asked for Trump to be tried separately from Chesebro.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the three other cases and denied wrongdoing. In the Georgia case, Willis has requested that arraignments begin the week of Sept. 5, though defendants in Georgia are permitted to waive those appearances and plead not guilty via court filing.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed the first case, accusing Trump of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star who claims to have had a sexual encounter with him years ago.
Trump also faces two sets of federal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith - one case in Washington involving election interference and one in Miami involving classified documents he retained after leaving office in 2021. He faces 91 criminal counts in total.
Trump agreed to post $200,000 bond and accepted bail conditions that would bar him from threatening witnesses or his co-defendants in the Georgia case.
Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday they would investigate whether Willis improperly coordinated with federal prosecutors. They previously launched an investigation of Bragg, who accused them of a "campaign of intimidation."
On Wednesday, Trump's leading rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination met in Milwaukee for their first debate. Trump skipped that event, instead sitting for a pre-taped interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson aimed at siphoning away viewers.
"I've been indicted four times - all trivial nonsense," Trump told Carlson.
(AP) — Roads between the Atlanta airport and the Fulton County Jail were blocked off as former President Donald Trump arrived in a motorcade to turn himself in on charges related to his efforts to remain in power after his 2020 election loss, giving the scene something of a presidential aura.
But Trump was going to do something no other president has ever done — surrender for booking on criminal charges and have a mug shot taken.
As word spread that Trump was on his way, demonstrators near the main entrance on the Rice Street side of the jail lined security barricades two to three deep. There were more Trump supporters than opponents braving the intense Georgia summer heat, but both groups were outnumbered by the media. The crowd, which began gathering in the morning, had grown as the hour of Trump’s booking approached.
Trump entered on the opposite side, along Jefferson Street, where police had blocked off the entrance. Fulton County sheriff’s deputies blocked one end of the block with an empty prisoner bus, while a county dump truck blocked the other end.
Many in the crowd wore pro-Trump T-shirts and waved large flags, including one that proclaimed “TRUMP WON.” Shortly after 6 p.m., U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and a staunch Trump defender, spoke briefly to the crowd.
“I’m telling you right now, regular Americans are watching this, and they are disgusted and they’re outraged,” she told reporters shortly before Trump’s arrival.
It was the fourth time this year that Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, was booked on criminal charges. But unlike his previous arrests, which happened in courthouses just before initial appearances before a judge, this time he had to turn himself in at a notoriously troubled jail. In another departure, he had a booking photo taken.
Trump and 18 others were indicted last week, accused by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of participating in a sprawling scheme to undermine the will of Georgia voters, who had narrowly rejected the Republican incumbent in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. Many of the others charged turned themselves in at the jail earlier this week, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis on Wednesday and John Eastman on Tuesday.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat had said Trump, and the others in this case, would be treated like anyone else — notably saying at a news conference earlier this month: “Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you.”
But the scene outside the jail was anything but normal Thursday.
It included supporters of the former president such as Cliff MacMorris, 66, from Naples, Florida, who held a flag that read, “Trump Won Save America.”
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s lawyer and confidant, turned himself in at a jail in Atlanta on Wednesday on charges related to efforts to overturn then-President Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis also surrendered. (Aug. 24)
He and his wife, Georgine, spent the night in Atlanta.
“You don’t have the right to persecute somebody unjustly,” Cliff MacMorris said.
His wife said the indictments against the former president were politically motivated because of the four years of “prosperity, safety, freedom” that Trump achieved in the White House.
“They must be worried about him for some reason,” she said.
Sharon Anderson, 67, from east Tennessee, was outside the jail for a second straight day. She had spent the night in a car with the air conditioning running.
“I’m here to support Donald J. Trump. I want him to see some of the millions that show up at the polls for him.”
She said the indictments against Trump had only strengthened her support for him. The former president questioned the election results, which isn’t a crime, she said.
While the crowd was mostly made up of Trump supporters, 64-year-old Laurie Arbeiter, who is from New York City, wore a shirt that said “Arrest Trump” and carried more than 50 black-and-white signs with her, including ones that read “Convict Trump” and “Trump is a Traitor.” She said she’d also traveled to other places where Trump was indicted.
As midday temperatures hovered near 90 degrees, sheriff’s deputies in vests toweled off and sought shade under a tree.
The main Fulton County Jail, also known as the Rice Street Jail, is located in a traditionally industrial part of northwest Atlanta where warehouses are currently being redeveloped for retail and residential use. It’s set back from the street by a long, tree-lined driveway that leads to a parking lot in front of the jail’s imposing façade.
On most days, the public and news media are free to drive right up to the front of the jail, and news cameras have captured the arrivals and departures of many high-profile people who have been booked into the jail. But with the booking of a former president looming, the driveway off the main street in front of the jail had been closed off for days, with no reporters or cameras allowed within viewing distance of that entrance.
Security tightened further on Thursday. While cars had been allowed on the Rice Street side of the jail a day earlier, sheriff’s deputies cut off vehicle traffic on Thursday. Some deputies wore vests and covered their faces with black masks. They formed a line along the street.
Members of a group called Blacks for Trump hurled racial slurs at Black sheriff’s deputies. But the demonstration was otherwise peaceful.
While others who are booked there spend months or even years in the facility awaiting indictment or trial, Trump left the jail 20 minutes after surrendering. The jail is plagued by crumbling infrastructure and overcrowding. On Thursday morning, the jail housed 2,618 people, above its capacity of 2,254, according to data from the sheriff’s office.
The U.S. Department of Justice last month announced a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing violence, filth, and the death last year of a man whose body was found covered in insects.