Donald Trump has made history as the first former United States president to submit to a mugshot when he appeared at an Atlanta jail to face criminal charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
The photograph shows Trump, wearing a blue suit and red tie, with a scowl on his face.
Trump’s private plane landed at 7.03pm on Thursday (Friday 9.30am AEST) at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, where his motorcade was set to drive to the Fulton County Jail for his booking on more than a dozen charges.
Trump – inmate no. P01135809, according to Fulton County Jail records – spent about 20 minutes on Thursday inside the jailhouse
Before boarding his private plane at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport after the booking, Trump repeated his claim that the prosecution – along with prosecutors in the other indictments 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 also returned to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, making a post for the first time since 2021. Trump’s account was suspended following the 6 January Capitol riots, but was reinstated in 2022 by Elon Musk.
He shared the mugshot with the words “election interference” and “never surrender”, and directed followers to his website.
During his booking, Trump agreed to post a $US200,000 ($A312,000) bond and accepted bail conditions that would bar him from threatening witnesses or his co-defendants in the Georgia case.
Trump, 77, entered uncharted territory as the first former president to face criminal charges, even as he mounts another campaign for the White House in 2024.
Far from damaging his candidacy, however, the four cases filed against him have only bolstered his standing among Republican voters.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene (centre) was among Donald Trump’s supporters outside the Fulton County Jail. Source: AAP, AP / Ben Gray
He holds a commanding polling lead in the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.
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 US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the former president’s most loyal congressional allies.
Earlier in the day, Judge Scott McAfee set a trial date of October 23 for one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants, lawyer 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. Trump’s legal team has not yet proposed 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.
Former US president Donald Trump surrendered and was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. Source: AAP / AP
Trump’s jailhouse photograph is already being circulated widely by Trump’s foes and supporters alike.
“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.
One of the most recognisable people in the world, Trump has not had to submit to a photo in the other three cases.
But fake mugshots have circulated online since shortly after he was first indicted in Manhattan in March on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
Some of his co-defendants have also been booked.
Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, was stone-faced in his mugshot, while lawyer Jenna Ellis smiled.
All 19 defendants face a Friday deadline to surrender.
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and former lawyer for former President Donald Trump, was stone-faced in his mugshot. Source: AAP, SIPA USA / Sipa USA/Sipa USA
Court records showed that Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, was booked on Thursday.
The jail has a reputation for grim conditions that have inspired rap songs and prompted an investigation by the US Justice Department.
Trump faces 13 felony counts in the Georgia case, including racketeering, which is typically used to target organised 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.
A large police escort lead the vehicle carrying former US President Donald Trump after he arrived at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport to turn himself in to authorities at the Fulton County Jail. Source: AAP, EPA / Edward M. Pio Roda
Trump is due to enter a plea on 5 September and has pleaded not guilty in the other three other cases.
He has denied wrongdoing and has called all the cases politically motivated.
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.
SBS News
