Atlanta: Former US President Donald Trump was arrested Thursday in a Georgia prison on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state.
During a brief session that lasted less than 30 minutes, Trump, 77, was booked into Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail on 13 charges, according to records published by the sheriff’s office.
Donald Trump’s height was listed by jail as six feet three inches (1.9 m), weight 215 pounds (97 kg) and hair color as “blonde or strawberry”.
Other defendants in the fraud case who have surrendered to Georgia authorities in recent days have taken a mug shot.
The billionaire has been indicted four times since April, setting the stage for a year of unprecedented drama as he faces numerous court appearances and attempts to block another White House campaign.
In posts on his Truth social platform shortly before he left his New Jersey golf club for a flight to Atlanta, Trump said he was “arrested for having the audacity to challenge a rigged and stolen (sic) election.” is going.”
“It’s another sad day in America!” he added.
Trump had managed to avoid a mugshot during his previous arrests this year: in New York for allegedly giving money to an adult movie star, in Florida for mishandling top-secret government documents, and in Washington. I am accused of conspiring against him. Democrat Joe Biden defeated in 2020 election.
But Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labatt said standard procedure in Georgia is for a defendant to be photographed before being released on bond — set at $200,000 in Trump’s case.
The arrest comes a day after Trump canceled a televised debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that featured eight of his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — all of them in the polls. were far behind.
He still stole the spotlight, though, as all but two candidates said they would support him as the party’s nominee even if he was a convicted felon.
During a pre-recorded interview with former host Tucker Carlson — which aired on social media at the same time as the debate — Trump dismissed the criminal charges against him as “nonsense.”
Trump said the Justice Department was “weaponized” under Biden to block his White House bid.
Donald Trump first ex-president criminally charged
A tight security cordon was set up for Trump’s booking at the Fulton County Jail, which is under investigation into multiple inmate deaths and tragic circumstances.
Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis, who filed the massive fraud case, had set a deadline of Friday afternoon (1600 GMT) for Trump and 18 other defendants to surrender.
Trump and 11 others have turned themselves in so far.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows surrendered Thursday and was released on $100,000 bond.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal attorney while he was in the White House and pushed false claims that Trump had won the 2020 election, on Wednesday. A case was registered against them and they were released.
John Eastman, a conservative lawyer accused of masterminding a scheme to have Donald Trump run for Congress from Georgia instead of Biden, has also been indicted and released. .
A few dozen supporters of the former Republican president gathered outside the jail, including Sharon Anderson, who spent the night in her car.
“I think it’s a political persecution and now it’s turned into a political prosecution,” Anderson told JEE News.
Trump is the first US president in history to face criminal charges.
Their separate trials, if they take place next year, could coincide with the Republican presidential primary season, which begins in January, and the campaign for the November 2024 White House election.
Special counsel Jack Smith has proposed a January 2024 start date for Trump’s trial on charges that he conspired to overturn the last election through a campaign of lies that culminated in a January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. On attack.
Trump’s lawyers have contested the proposed start date of April 2026 after the election.
Georgia District Attorney Willis initially suggested the fraud trial would begin in March of next year, the same month Trump is to be tried in New York for allegedly paying an adult film star.
On Thursday, after one of the defendants asked for a speedy trial, he proposed that it begin in October of this year for all 19, a move that drew immediate opposition from Trump’s lawyers. Objection was made.
The Florida case, in which Donald Trump is accused of taking classified government documents while leaving the White House and refusing to return them, is scheduled to begin in May.
