A former President of the United States, Donald Trump has finally surrendered himself to authorities in the state of Georgia, where he faces criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Barely 24 hours before his deadline to surrender, the Republican leader flew down from his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, to show up at the Fulton County jail on Thursday afternoon.
Once inside, he was quickly booked, and as part of that procedure, Trump had his mugshot taken for the first time in the history of a US president.
The process took approximately 20 minutes. Afterwards, Trump quickly disappeared into a motorcade waiting outside the jail. He had been released on a $200,000 bond agreement, the highest of all his co-defendants.
As he left the airport in Atlanta, Georgia, Trump issued a brief statement to reporters, denying wrongdoing and reiterating that he had the right to challenge his defeat in the 2020 election.
‘We have every right – every single right – to challenge an election that we think is dishonest,’ Trump said, offering a preview of his defence strategy.
He also turned the allegation of election meddling against the prosecutors, accusing them of trying to derail his 2024 bid for the presidency: ‘What they’re doing is election interference. They’re trying to interfere with an election.’
Trump is just one of 19 people charged in the Georgia election case, which alleges the existence of a criminal enterprise to override his defeat in the 2020 presidential race.
Read Also: Quebec Woman Who Sent Poison To Trump Jailed For 22
The former president is believed to be the 12th among the defendants to surrender to authorities.
All 19 defendants faced a deadline of Friday at noon local time (16:00 GMT) to turn themselves in. Since Tuesday, high-profile Trump allies have trickled into the Fulton County jail, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and lawyer Sidney Powell.
Ahead of Thursday’s booking, Trump’s lawyers sparred with Georgia prosecutors over when the trial should begin.
One of Trump’s co-defendants, lawyer Ken Chesebro, filed a motion earlier in the day asking for an October 23 start date, a request a Georgia judge granted.
Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney prosecuting the case, followed that ruling with her own request to set that date as the start for all 19 defendants.
She had previously suggested beginning the trial in March 2024.
Trump’s legal team, however, responded by filing a motion to sever his case from Chesebro’s, leading to the possibility that multiple trials could take place at separate times.
On his way to the Fulton County jail, Trump once again attacked Willis on social media for what he considered a politically motivated prosecution.
“Please excuse me, I have to start getting ready to head down to Atlanta, Georgia, where Murder and other Violent Crimes have reached levels never seen before, to get ARRESTED by a Radical Left, Lowlife District Attorney, Fani Willis,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In a subsequent post, the Republican leader accused Willis of campaigning to “get Trump” as part of her bid for office. She became district attorney in January 2021 and opened an investigation into allegations of election interference the following month.
Trump had announced on social media that he would be arriving at the Fulton County jail around 7:30pm local time (23:30 GMT).
In the hours beforehand, dozens of supporters gathered outside the facility, waving flags and wearing pro-Trump shirts and baseball caps.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a US representative from Georgia and ardent Trump supporter, joined the group around 6pm local time (22:00 GMT). She told local media that she was standing up against the “weaponised government”, represented by the prosecutor Willis.
“We’re going to make sure that she loses her job,” Taylor Greene said.
A smaller group of counterprotesters also arrived at the Fulton County jail, some of whom identified as members of the group Republicans Against Trump, or RAT. A few of the demonstrators wore giant rat costumes, and another wore a mock prison uniform.
In a break with usual practice, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office kept media at a distance from the jail’s car park, where reporters often gather to cover arrests. The Federal Aviation Authority likewise closed the airspace over the jail for approximately an hour and a half, in an effort to ensure security.