Former President Donald Trump became the first US president in history to be captured in a mug shot. On the evening of August 24, he voluntarily turned himself in to Georgia authorities in response to 13 felony charges issued by a Fulton County grand jury. These charges stemmed from allegations of his involvement in attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
The timing of his booking, during prime-time cable news hours, seemed to be a calculated move orchestrated by Trump. This move aimed to undermine the charges and divert attention from the humiliation of surrendering. Contrary to his previous criminal cases, Trump did not receive any special treatment during his booking. In addition to the mugshot he had been actively trying to avoid, authorities took his fingerprints and recorded his weight as 215lb, as online records indicate.
This marked Trump’s fourth indictment since leaving office. The Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, led the charge with a 41-count indictment, accusing Trump and 18 associates of participating in a criminal scheme to reverse the 2020 election outcome. Willis’s eagerness for an immediate trial was evident in her request for the trial of all 19 defendants to commence on October 23. One co-defendant, Trump’s former lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, hastened the process by seeking a speedy trial.
Trump’s legal team swiftly opposed this accelerated trial schedule, aligning with Trump’s overarching strategy to prolong the legal proceedings, possibly until after the 2024 presidential election. This divergence of interests among those indicted became apparent.
Bond of $200,000
Setting Trump’s bond at $200,000, the highest among his co-defendants including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who faced a $150,000 bond, he enlisted the services of local commercial bondsman Charles Shaw from Foster Bail Bonds to fulfill this financial requirement. Around 20 minutes after arriving, Trump secured his release from jail, subjected to conditions that imposed rigorous restrictions on witness intimidation.
Arriving via a private plane from his New Jersey club, Trump’s high-profile surrender contrasted with his rivals’ participation in a recent presidential debate for the 2024 Republican nomination. Despite his legal challenges, Trump remained the frontrunner in the race.
The strategy to transform his surrender into a televised spectacle aimed to undermine the indictments and exploit the information void left by prosecutors. Trump’s brief comments to reporters before leaving Atlanta perpetuated his claims of innocence and election fraud. Subsequently, his campaign used the mugshot for fundraising, and he returned to Twitter, now rebranded as X, for the first time since January 2021, posting the photo with the caption “NEVER SURRENDER!”
In an interview with rightwing network Newsmax, Trump portrayed himself as treated fairly during his jail stay but continued to vilify the prosecutors as “radical left” lawyers, labeling them as “vicious animals” and “maniacs.”
Prior to his surrender , and before Trump stood for the mug shot , he made a significant change to his legal team, enlisting top Georgia attorney Steven Sadow as lead counsel, replacing Drew Findling. The rationale behind this abrupt shift remained unclear, though Trump’s history of replacing lawyers who fail to prevent charges suggested a pattern.