Booking mugshot of former US President Donald Trump.
Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office/Handout via Reuters
Former President Donald Trump was booked at an Atlanta jail on Thursday in his fourth criminal arrest this year, this time in a sweeping racketeering case accusing him and his allies of conspiring to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
The Fulton County, Georgia, Sheriff's Office released Donald Trump's mug shot that shows Trump wearing a blue suit and red tie, with a scowl on his face.
Trump flew to Atlanta in a private plane from Newark, New Jersey, and was whisked to the Fulton County Jail in a motorcade with a police escort, arriving at 7:35 pm. He was then fingerprinted and photographed like other people accused of state crimes and released on bond.
About 20 minutes later, he returned directly to the Atlanta airport, where he briefly spoke to reporters on the tarmac before boarding his plane. Saying he had done nothing wrong, he called the charges a “travesty of justice” and added that “we have every right to challenge an election we think is dishonest.”
His visit to the jail — a notorious facility often name-checked in rap lyrics and the subject of a Justice Department investigation into unsafe and unsanitary conditions — was a startling position for the former president to find himself in.
Trump was indicted last week, along with 18 political allies, as part of a sprawling racketeering case accusing them of engaging in a “criminal enterprise” whose goal was to “unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” The indictment includes 40 other violations of state law.
Here’s what to know:
— Trump’s bond was set at $200,000 on Monday, part of a whirlwind of post-indictment activity in Atlanta this week that saw more than half of the defendants show up at the jail to be booked by Thursday afternoon. Among them was Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer, who declared the case to be “an attack on the American people.” Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, was booked at the jail Thursday.
— Trump was listed in the Fulton County booking system as having “blonde or strawberry” hair, standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 215 pounds. That weight is 24 pounds less than the White House doctor reported Trump weighed in 2018.
— Also on Thursday, Trump shook up his Georgia legal defense team, adding Steve Sadow, a veteran criminal defense lawyer who has taken on a number of high-profile cases.
— Three defendants are seeking to have their cases removed to federal court: Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official; Meadows; and David Shafer, former head of the state Republican Party. If those efforts succeed, a federal judge could move all 19 defendants to federal court, mooting trial dates set in state court. A few weeks of legal wrangling remain before that is decided.
— Trump’s allies in Congress are working to protect him. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, began an inquiry Thursday into Willis, an elected Democrat — questioning whether she collaborated with Biden administration officials and targeting any federal funding her office receives.
— The defendants may soon make court appearances for their arraignments, in which they would enter pleas. But all of the defendants have the right to waive their arraignments.