UPDATEDonald Trump has surrendered to justice in the US for the fourth time in six months, now in Atlanta. He posed for a police photo on Thursday evening (local time) and paid tens of thousands of dollars to await trial in freedom.
The Atlanta sheriff’s office registered suspect Donald J. Trump as a man with “blonde or reddish-blond hair” and blue eyes. Trump reported a weight of 97.5 kilograms and a height of 1.80 meters, gave fingerprints and looked into the camera of a police photographer. Expect that poorly featured photo on T-shirts and flags as former President Trump returns to campaign for president.
Trump flew his own plane from New Jersey, where he spends the summer at his golf resort, to Atlanta in the late afternoon. He had to report to prison there as a suspect in a case about the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. The prosecutor suspects him of leading a “criminal organization” from the White House that tried to put him in the saddle. after he lost that election.
Free on bail
The landing of Trump’s plane was broadcast live on American TV channels. The former president still gave a thumbs up as he walked down the plane stairs. His ride from the airport to the prison was also filmed from the air and broadcast live. Trump arrived at the back entrance in a motorcade of black SUVs, with cameramen on board, preceded by a group of police motorcycles.
In order to be released from prison on bail, Trump has had to pay a bail of $ 200,000 (185,000 euros). He, like many American suspects, let a commercial agency guarantee that amount, in exchange for a fee of $ 20,000. Many others are unable to pay such bail, and are therefore detained pending their criminal case. According to civil rights organization ACLU, 10 percent of inmates in the Fulton County Jail, where Trump appeared, are because they cannot afford bail.
That prison has a bad name. There are complaints about clogged toilets and overcrowded cell blocks. Pieces of wall detach, allowing prisoners to use pieces of brick as weapons. Last month, a prisoner was found dead with lice and bed bugs all over his body. The Justice Department launched an investigation, the sheriff spoke of a humanitarian crisis.
Fourth time suspect
Trump has already reported to a judge three times before this year to be officially designated as a suspect. Most of this happened behind closed doors. That’s different in Georgia. There it is customary to release a police photo of detainees, the so-called ‘mugshot’. No exception is made for the former president.
For many suspects, such a photo is embarrassing, but Trump uses his arrest in his campaign. He portrays himself as a victim of politically motivated accusers. “I will be proudly arrested in Georgia tomorrow afternoon,” he wrote beforehand. Before re-boarding his plane to depart Atlanta, he spoke of a “sad day in America.” He reiterated once again that the election results could not be trusted. “I must be able to contest the result if I believe it is incorrect, I have every right to do so.”
Not long after, Trump also sent the ‘mugshot’ into the world himself. He posted his police photo on X, formerly Twitter, with the words “election interference. Never surrender!’ It is the first time since 2021 that he has posted on this social medium. In less than half an hour, his mugshot had already been viewed three million times. His account on X, formerly Twitter, has more than 86 million followers.
Threat
In Georgia, cameras are allowed in the courtroom so that citizens can watch. The criminal case against Trump will therefore be shown on TV, right in the run-up to a presidential election in which Trump is expected to be on the ballot paper again on behalf of the Republican party.
The case is a serious threat to him. Trump hopes to be elected president in order to influence the four criminal cases against him. Sitting presidents are not normally prosecuted, and Trump could, in theory, pardon himself. But that’s not the case in Georgia – he doesn’t have that authority there. In addition, a minimum sentence of five years in prison applies if found guilty in Atlanta.
Many of Trump’s Republican party associates are dismissing the case as a political circus of a prosecutor seeking to make a name for himself in prosecuting Trump. Georgia prosecutors are elected. Some Republican members of Congress have said they are investigating the officer in the case, Fani Willis.
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