Trump arrives in Atlanta for mug shot, booking in election case

Donald Trump arrived in Atlanta on Thursday evening to get his mug shot taken at a local jailhouse as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former US president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

Trump’s private airplane landed at 7:03 pm ET (2303 GMT) at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport where his motorcade was set to drive to the Fulton County Jail for his booking on multiple felony charges.

Among his supporters outside the jailhouse was Georgia US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of his most prominent backers in Congress.

Judge Scott McAfee set a trial date of October 23 for one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants, attorney 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.

Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former US president to face criminal charges, though the four cases filed against him have not damaged his front-runner status in the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.

The businessman- and celebrity reality star-turned-politician will join the ranks of gangster Al Capone, crooner Frank Sinatra and other high-profile Americans who have posed for jailhouse photographs.

The image is certain to be circulated widely by Trump’s foes and supporters alike.

“We want to put it on a T-shirt. It will go worldwide. It will be a more popular image than the Mona Lisa,” said Laura Loomer, 30, a Republican former congressional candidate who mingled with other Trump supporters outside the jail on Thursday morning.

One of the most recognizable people in the world, Trump has not had to submit to a photo in the other three cases.

But fake mug shots have circulated online since shortly after he was first indicted in Manhattan in March on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election he won.

At least 10 of his co-defendants already have been booked.

Some, like Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, were stone-faced in their mug shots, while others, such as lawyer Jenna Ellis, smiled for the camera.

All 19 defendants face 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.

Trump faces 13 felony counts in the Georgia case, including racketeering, which is typically used to target organized 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.

TRIAL DATE WRANGLING

Willis originally proposed a trial date of March 4 but moved it up for Chesebro after he asked that his trial start by October. Trump’s legal team has not yet proposed a date but is expected to push for a much later start.

On Thursday, his newest Atlanta lawyer, Steven Sadow, asked for Trump to be tried separately from Chesebro.

Trump is due to enter a plea on September 5 after pleading not guilty in the three other cases.

He has denied wrongdoing and has called all the cases politically motivated.

In addition to New York state charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump 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.