Former President Donald Trump surrendered Thursday night to authorities in Georgia, where he was arrested on charges that he illegally plotted to reverse the state’s 2020 election.
Mr. Trump was arrested, fingerprinted and had his mug shot taken at the Fulton County Jail, a historic moment because it is the first criminal mugshot ever taken of a former president. He did not have his mugshot taken in any of his three previous arrests.
The former president’s personal information was entered into the Fulton County booking system. The information recorded him as having “blonde or strawberry” hair, blue eyes, a height of 6-foot-3 and a weight of 215 pounds. His inmate number was entered into the system as P01135809.
Mr. Trump was quickly processed and released in about 20 minutes and did not make any comments to the media at the jail. Supporters of the former president rallied outside the jail with flags and pro-Trump signs.
Mr. Trump did not have to enter a plea because he was not arraigned. He is expected to be arraigned next month.
Ahead of departing Atlanta for Bedminister, New Jersey, Mr. Trump briefly spoke to reporters at the airport tarmac and called the charges against him “a travesty of justice” and a “very sad day for America.”
“We did nothing wrong at all. We have every single right to challenge an election that we think is dishonest. This is their way of campaigning,” he said of Democrats. “It’s election interference.”
He spoke off the cuff and did not take any questions.
It was the fourth time this year that Mr. Trump has turned himself over to local or federal officials after criminal charges were filed against him. No current or former president had ever faced criminal charges until Mr. Trump was charged in New York earlier this year in connection with alleged hush-money payments.
Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in all of the cases brought against him. His booking in Atlanta came a day after the first GOP presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, an event that Mr. Trump skipped.
The former president, 77, turned himself in at the notorious Fulton County’s Rice Street jail in Atlanta, which is under a Justice Department investigation into its conditions. Recent allegations of filthy housing, officers using excessive force, and bedbugs and other insects prompted the federal probe.
Authorities’ processing of Mr. Trump was completed relatively quickly because the former president’s legal team negotiated his consent bond and conditions of his release ahead of his surrender. Mr. Trump agreed to a $200,000 bond and conditions, including not using social media to intimidate co-defendants or witnesses.
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Unlike his earlier appearances, Mr. Trump’s surrender did not require an accompanying court appearance for now. In Fulton County, defendants are not arraigned on the same day they are booked, which is unusual compared to other jurisdictions.
That means Mr. Trump may have to make a second trip to Georgia, though the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said it would be open to either waiving the former president’s arraignment or allowing it to happen virtually.
Most of the 19 defendants in the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, have already surrendered at the jail. His co-defendants were also processed quickly because their attorneys had also negotiated deals with prosecutors before they turned themselves in.
Among the high-profile defendants who have already surrendered are Trump attorneys Rudolph W. Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and John Eastman. Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, surrendered earlier Thursday after losing a bid in federal court to delay his arrest.
There was much drama ahead of Mr. Trump’s surrender. Ms. Willis asked the court to set an Oct. 23 trial date for all 19 defendants. She initially sought to begin the trial in March 2024 but changed her request after Kenneth Chesebro, one of the defendants, asked for a speedy trial.
Mr. Trump’s legal team quickly responded with a filing opposing Ms. Willis’ efforts to move up the court date, arguing that his case should be severed from the one against Mr. Chesebro.
Also Thursday, Mr. Trump replaced Drew Findling, his top Georgia lawyer, with Steven Sadow, an Atlanta-based attorney. Mr. Sadow’s website describes him as specializing in “white-collar and high-profile defense.”
In a statement, Mr. Sadow declared Mr. Trump “innocent of all the charges brought against him,” adding that “the president should never have been indicted.”
“We look forward to the case being dismissed or, if necessary, an unbiased, open-minded jury finding the president not guilty,” the statement said. “Prosecutions intended to advance or serve the ambitions and careers of political opponents of the president have no place in our justice system.”
The former president is charged with 13 counts in Georgia, including violating the state’s racketeering law, making false statements and writings, and conspiring to commit forgery as part of an alleged plot to replace duly elected presidential electors with new electors who would vote for him.
The prosecution is the fourth Mr. Trump is facing and the fourth time he’s been booked since April. He has been charged in two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
One of the cases was brought in Florida related to Mr. Trump’s handling of classified government documents, while the second was in Washington arising from Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election results. The Manhattan district attorney has also charged Mr. Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a scheme to conceal hush money payments before the 2016 presidential election.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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