ATLANTA — Donald Trump surrendered at an Atlanta jail on Thursday and was booked on felony charges alleging he participated in a sweeping criminal conspiracy to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia — an unprecedented moment resulting in the first mug shot of a former American president.
Trump’s booking at the Fulton County Jail came 10 days after the former president was charged in Georgia in what was his fourth criminal indictment since March — and his second tied to his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results and remain in the White House.
But his Atlanta surrender was unlike his previous ones. While other jurisdictions waived a booking photo and processed Trump in courthouse facilities, Fulton County officials announced Trump would be treated no differently than any other Atlanta-area arrestee.
Trump was required to turn himself in at the notorious county jail known as “Rice Street,” where inmate deaths and decrepit conditions recently prompted a Justice Department civil rights investigation. The former president had his height and weight recorded and was fingerprinted and photographed. Unlike other arrestees, he was booked and released in roughly 20 minutes on a $200,000 bond negotiated earlier in the week by his legal team. He arrived and departed through a back entrance of the facility where he did not interact with anyone in the jail population.
Trump is facing 13 counts in the Georgia case, including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents. The former president has denied any wrongdoing and described the investigation, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, as a “political witch hunt.”
Speaking to reporters as he prepared to board his plane to depart Atlanta, Trump again defended his actions in Georgia.
“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice,” Trump said. “We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong.”
