Washington — Former President Donald Trump’s booking photo was released Thursday night by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office after he surrendered to authorities on charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, an instantly historic image that marks the first time a mug shot has been taken of a former president.
Trump turned himself in at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta on Thursday evening, where he was processed and then released on a $200,000 bond roughly 30 minutes after arriving at the facility. Defendants need to put up 10% of the bail amount — $20,000 in Trump’s case — and the bond is meant to ensure they show up for court appearances.
The date of his arraignment, when Trump will appear in Fulton County Superior Court to enter a plea, is unclear, though District Attorney Fani Willis has suggested all 19 people charged in the case involving the 2020 election be arraigned the week of Sept. 5.
“We did nothing wrong at all,” Trump told reporters at the Atlanta airport before returning to his residence in New Jersey. “And we have every right, every single right to challenge an election that we think is dishonest.”
The former president called his criminal case in Fulton County a “travesty of justice.”
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
In addition to agreeing to the $200,000 bond — which includes an $80,000 bond for a violation of Georgia’s racketeering law and $10,000 bonds for each of the subsequent 12 counts he faces — Trump is barred from intimidating any of his 18 co-defendants or witnesses in the case “or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” according to a bond order agreed to by Willis and the former president’s attorneys.
Trump is also prohibited from making any “direct or indirect” threats against any co-defendant, witness, or alleged victim, including on social media. The conditions forbid the former president from communicating about the facts of the case with the other 18 charged except through his attorneys.
This is Trump’s fourth indictment this year and the first to require a mug shot from him. He faces two federal prosecutions, and when he was booked in those cases, an official photograph of Trump was used. In the federal court system, if mug shots are taken, they are not released, according to CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman. No booking photo was taken of Trump in New York, where he faces state charges of falsifying business records. Even if Trump were to have had his mug shot taken, New York bans law enforcement from releasing most booking photos publicly.
He has entered not guilty pleas in all three earlier cases and claimed his prosecutions are politically motivated.
A Fulton County grand jury returned the sprawling 41-count indictment charging Trump and 18 others on Aug. 14. Prosecutors allege the former president and his associates participated in a “criminal enterprise” that aimed to reverse Trump’s electoral loss in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
Trump has been charged with 13 counts, including an alleged violation of Georgia’s racketeering law, making false statements and writings, and conspiring to commit forgery, regarding an alleged plot to replace duly elected presidential electors with new electors who would vote for the former president.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing related to his efforts in the days and weeks after the November 2020 election and has criticized the case brought by Willis as a “witch hunt” designed to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign.
