Former US president Donald Trump has been booked in Atlanta on election fraud charges, with authorities releasing his much-anticipated mugshot.
Donald Trump’s mugshot has been released after he was booked at an Atlanta jail on more than a dozen felony charges as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former US president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
An unsmiling Trump — inmate no. P01135809, according to Fulton County Jail records — was captured on Thursday glaring at the camera. The image represented yet another extraordinary moment for Trump, who did not have to submit to a photograph when making appearances in his three other criminal cases.
He wasted little time trying to turn it to his advantage, posting it on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, as well as his own social media site, Truth Social. His campaign website featured the mugshot along with a message from Trump defending his actions and asking for donations.
The X post appeared to be Trump’s first on the site since his account was banned after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. X owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account late last year.
Trump spent only about 20 minutes at the jail before heading back to his New Jersey golf club. Before boarding his private plane at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, he repeated his claim that the prosecution – along with the others he faces – is politically motivated.
“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice,” he told reporters. “I did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it.”
Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former US president to face criminal charges, even as he mounts another campaign for the White House next year.
Far from damaging his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination, however, the four cases filed against him have only bolstered his standing. He holds a commanding polling lead in the Republican race to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.
Dozens of supporters, waving Trump banners and American flags, jostled for a glimpse as Trump arrived at the jail. Among the Trump backers gathered outside was Georgia US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the former president’s most loyal congressional allies.
The mugshot image is certain to be circulated widely by Trump’s foes and supporters alike.
Judge Scott McAfee set a trial date of October 23 for one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants, lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed that date in response to Chesebro’s request for a speedy trial. The judge’s order said the schedule does not yet apply to Trump or any of the other defendants.
Eleven of his co-defendants already have been booked, according to authorities. Some, like Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, were stone-faced in their mugshots, while others, such as lawyer Jenna Ellis, smiled for the camera.
All 19 defendants faced a Friday deadline to surrender. Court records showed that Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, was processed at the jail on Thursday.
The jail has a reputation for grim conditions that have inspired rap songs and prompted an investigation by the US Justice Department.
Trump faces 13 felony counts in the Georgia case, including racketeering, which is typically used to target organised crime, for pressuring state officials to reverse his election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 victory.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the three other cases and denied wrongdoing. In the Georgia case, Willis has requested that arraignments begin the week of September 5, though defendants in Georgia are permitted to waive those appearances and plead not guilty via court filing.
Trump also faces two sets of federal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith – one case in Washington involving election interference and one in Miami involving classified documents he retained after leaving office in 2021. He faces 91 criminal counts in total.
Trump agreed to post $US200,000 ($A312,000) bond and accepted bail conditions that would bar him from threatening witnesses or his co-defendants in the Georgia case.
