Donald Trump made history on Thursday by becoming the first former president to have his mugshot taken after being arrested for trying to overturn the 2020 election outcomes in Georgia. Interestingly, he chose to publicize this image on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The mugshot was taken while he was being booked at an Atlanta jail on Thursday. Trump, 77, voluntarily surrendered to authorities at the Fulton County Jail after being indicted by a grand jury on August 14. The charges against him encompass racketeering, conspiracy, making false statements, and soliciting a public official to breach their oath of office.
This Is Trump
This is the fourth time in a year that Trump was arrested. He was also fingerprinted at the Fulton County jail. Unlike his earlier three arrests in New York City, Miami, and Washington DC, he had his booking photograph taken during his arrest in Atlanta on Thursday.
He then posted his photograph on X. It was his first tweet since January 2021.
Trump's physical measurements were documented, including a height of 6 feet 3 inches and a weight of 215 pounds. As a component of this procedure, he was assigned a prisoner identification number, specifically P01135809.
He was released on a $200,000 bond and consented to an order that restrained his capacity to make social media posts regarding witnesses or co-defendants implicated in the case.
Hours later, in an interview with Fox News Digital, the former head of state conveyed that having his mugshot taken was "not a comfortable feeling, especially when you've done nothing wrong,"
"They insisted on a mugshot and I agreed to do that," he added. "This is the only time I've ever taken a mugshot."
Earlier this month, Trump's attorney Alina Habba said that the choice to take a mugshot of the ex-president seemed to be "a bit of an ego-driven action" on the part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
"The purpose of a mug shot is when you don't recognize someone, you think there's a flight risk," Habba told Fox News. "This man is the most famous person in the world, the leading [Republican] candidate right now."
Mugshots of Trump's Allies Also Taken
The extensive 41-count indictment also charged 18 other Trump allies and supporters. This included prominent figures like attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Kenneth Chesebro. All of them surrendered themselves this week for the booking process.
The attorneys were accompanied by GOP poll watcher Scott Hall, former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham, former Georgia state Sen. David Shafer, and Georgia lawyer Ray Smith.
Bail amounts were set at $100,000 for Eastman, Powell, Ellis, and Chesebro; $75,000 for Latham; $75,000 for Shafer; and $50,000 for Smith.
Additionally, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and Trump's 2020 Election Day director of operations Michael Roman were also charged, but as of now, they have not turned themselves in for the booking process.
Meadows and Clark requested a delay in their surrender until a separate request to move the case to federal court is addressed. However, US District Court Judge Steven Jones rejected both of these requests on Wednesday.
The remaining co-defendants, including attorneys Ray Smith, Robert Cheeley, and Shawn Still; Illinois pastor Stephen Lee; former Black Voices for Trump executive director Harrison Floyd; former Kanye West publicist Trevian Kutti; and former Coffee County official Misty Hampton, have been given until Friday at noon to turn themselves in for surrender.
Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, has proposed a trial date of March 4, 2024, for the case.
Each of the 19 defendants, including Trump associates, has been accused of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a legal framework akin to the statute that former prosecutor Giuliani employed to target organized crime members in the 1980s.
Trump maintains that all the defendants, including himself, "did nothing wrong at all."
"This is all about election interference," he told Fox News Digital Thursday. "It all comes through Washington and the DOJ and Crooked Joe Biden—nothing like this has ever happened in our country before.
"We did nothing wrong at all. And we have every right, every single right, to challenge an election that we think is dishonest, that we think is very dishonest."
