Donald Trump's mugshot, taken after he surrendered to Georgia police. Photo / Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Donald Trump's mugshot, taken after he surrendered to Georgia police. Photo / Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Former US President Donald Trump’s mug shot has been released after being booked in Georgia and surrendering on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in that state.
The moment yielded a historic first: a mug shot of a former American president.
Trump appeared wearing a navy suit with a red tie and white shirt.
The former president, given the inmate number #P01135809, scowled and frowned as authorities took the photo in custody.
“I believe it is a very sad day for America which should never happen,” Trump told reporters before boarding his plane back to New Jersey.
“We should be able to challenge an election. We did nothing wrong, I did nothing wrong. Everybody knows that. This is election interference, there’s never been anything like it in our country before. This is their way of campaigning.”
According to documents, Trump weighed in at 215lbs (97kg) and 6 foot three (1.92m) in height.
Trump’s surrender, coming amid an abrupt shake-up of his legal team, follows the presidential debate in Milwaukee the night before featuring his leading rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination — a contest in which he remains the leading candidate despite broad legal troubles. His presence in Georgia, though likely brief, is swiping the spotlight anew from his opponents after the debate in which they sought to seize on his absence to elevate their own presidential prospects.
Trump landed in Atlanta around and was to be driven, though rush-hour traffic, to jail for a booking process.
The Fulton County prosecution is the fourth criminal case against Trump since March, when he became the first former president in US history to be indicted.
Donald Trump's mugshot, taken after he surrendered to Georgia police. Photo / Fulton County Sheriff's Office
Since then, he’s faced federal charges in Florida and Washington, and this month he was indicted in Atlanta with 18 others — including his ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — under a racketeering statute normally associated with gang members and organized crime. Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and confidant, turned himself in on Wednesday and had a booking photo taken.
The criminal cases have spurred a succession of bookings and arraignments, with Trump making brief court appearances before returning to the 2024 campaign trail. He’s turned the appearances into campaign events amid a far lighter schedule than his rivals, with staff delighting in wall-to-wall media coverage that has included news helicopters tracking his every move.
Former President Donald Trump steps off his plane as he arrives at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Photo / AP
The campaign has also used the appearances to solicit fundraising contributions from his supporters as aides paint the charges as part of a politically motivated effort to damage his reelection chances.
By early Thursday afternoon, dozens of Trump supporters had gathered outside the jail where the ex-president was to surrender, some waving flags with Trump’s name, as officials tightened security measures.
His Atlanta surrender was different from prior ones, requiring him to surrender at a problem-plagued jail — but without an accompanying court appearance for now. Unlike in other cities that did not require him to pose for a mug shot, Fulton County officials said they would take a booking photo like they would for any other defendant.
Rudy Giuliani's mug shot when he was booked on Wednesday. Photo / AP
“Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mug shot ready for you,” Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat said at a news conference earlier this month.
District Attorney Fani Willis had earlier given all of the defendants until Friday afternoon to turn themselves in at the main Fulton County jail. On Thursday, her office proposed an October 23 trial date, though the complexities of the 19-person case — and potential scheduling conflicts with other Trump prosecutions — would appear to make it all but impossible. The date seemed to be a response to early legal manoeuvring by at least one defendant, Kenneth Chesebro, who requested a speedy trial.
Before his expected surrender, Trump hired a new lead attorney for the Georgia case.
Prominent Atlanta criminal defence attorney Steve Sadow took the place of another high-profile criminal defence attorney, Drew Findling, who had represented Trump as recently as Monday when his bond terms were negotiated. But by Thursday Findling was no longer part of the team, according to a person with knowledge of the change who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Sadow, who has represented a rapper, Gunna, who pleaded guilty last year in a racketeering case also brought by Willis, said in a statement that “the president should never have been indicted. He is innocent of all the charges brought against him”.
“We look forward to the case being dismissed or, if necessary, an unbiased, open-minded jury finding the president not guilty,” he added. “Prosecutions intended to advance or serve the ambitions and careers of political opponents of the president have no place in our justice system.”
It’s not the first time this year that Trump has shaken up his legal team either in the run-up to an indictment or in the immediate aftermath. One of his lead lawyers, Tim Parlatore, left the legal team weeks before Trump was indicted in Florida on charges of illegally hoarding classified documents, citing conflicts with a top Trump adviser. Two other lawyers, James Trusty and John Rowley, announced their resignations the morning after that indictment was returned.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He said in a social media post this week that he was being prosecuted for what he described in capital letters as a “perfect phone call” in which he asked the Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to help him “find 11,780 votes” for him to overturn his loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.
