Donald Trump has made history by becoming the first former president to pose for a mugshot after his arrest for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia – and he shared the image on X, the platform formally known as Twitter.
The 77-year-old was arrested for the fourth time this year and fingerprinted by authorities at the Fulton County jail.
Unlike with his previous three arrests – in New York City, Miami and Washington DC – on Thursday in Atlanta he had his booking photo taken.
It was his first tweet since January 2021.
Trump’s height of 6ft 3 and weight of 215lbs were recorded and, as part of the booking process, he was given a prisoner identification number: P01135809.
He was then released on payment of 10 percent of his $200,000 bail, having spent less than 20 minutes inside the infamous facility.
Donald Trump has made history by becoming the first former president to pose for a mugshot after his arrest for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia
Fulton County jail released Donald Trump’s booking record, which lists the charges and his vital statistics
Trump’s motorcade is seen outside the Fulton County jail in Atlanta
The former president traveled to Georgia on Thursday afternoon from his Bedminster, New Jersey, home.
His motorcade went first to Newark airport, and the New York-born billionaire boarded his Boeing 757 to fly to Atlanta.
He touched down in Atlanta shortly after 7pm, and, waving at the waiting media and giving the thumbs up, he stepped down from the plane and was driven 14 miles to the jail.
Trump’s arrival at the Fulton County jail on Rice Street in downtown Atlanta was greeted with loud cheers by his supporters, and some boos from detractors.
He spent around 25 minutes inside the decrepit facility, where seven people have died in custody since the start of this year, and was processed far more quickly than other accused criminals.
Trump’s height and weight were recorded, as well as his hair and eye color.
His fingerprints and booking photo were taken, and his bond money paid.
By 7:55pm on Thursday he was back in his motorcade and en route to Atlanta airport.
Trump declared on the tarmac that it was ‘a very sad day for America.’
He said it was ‘a travesty of justice’ – adding: ‘We did nothing wrong, I did nothing wrong.’
Trump said: ‘This is election interference. So I want to thank you for being here. We did nothing wrong. We had every right, every single right, to challenge an election we think was dishonest.’
He then boarded his plane, and flew back to New Jersey.
The former president boarded his plane to leave Atlanta shortly before 8:20pm, after being booked in Fulton County jail
Trump is seen walking up the steps of his plane to depart
Supporters of Donald Trump, Georgina and Cliff MacMorris, hold flags outside the Fulton County Jail ahead of Trump’s surrender
A flurry of nine of Trump allies have turned themselves in to the Georgia prison so far this week before the Friday deadline
Ahead of his surrender, Trump criticized Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, calling her a ‘Radical Left, Lowlife District Attorney‘.
His surrender came hours after Willis set a date for the trial.
She requested that Trump‘s trial begin on October 23 – a date widely viewed as being impossibly soon.
Also on Thursday, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows surrendered to cops.
A handful of other Trump allies and ‘co-conspirators’ who turned themselves into the Georgia prison this week had their mugshots released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday.
They are accused of joining a ‘conspiracy’ led by Trump to unlawfully change the outcome of the election.
Among them was ‘America’s Mayor’, Rudy Giuliani, who faced the humiliation of having his mugshot taken after getting booked at the Atlanta jail on Wednesday.
In the image, Giuliani can be seen looking straight ahead, showing a slight frown, with industrial lighting shining on his forehead and a sheriff’s badge on the wall to his right.
The former Trump lawyer is facing 13 felony counts, including RICO charges – the same number as Trump.
It was a stunning and symbolic turnaround for Giuliani, a former mob boss prosecutor, who famously used the RICO Act to take down the Mafia in the 1980s during his time as a Manhattan prosecutor.
Trump slammed the arrest of Giuliani in a Truth Social post after the release of the 79-year-old’s mugshot.
‘The greatest Mayor in the history of New York City was just ARRESTED in Atlanta, Georgia, because he fought for Election Integrity. THE ELECTION WAS RIGGED & STOLLEN. HOW SAD FOR OUR COUNTRY. MAGA!’ Trump wrote.
Mark Meadows immediately had a jail record in the Fulton County system that included details like his height and weight – 6-foot-1 and 240 pounds – respectively.
It described him as having blue eyes and ‘gray or partially gray’ hair.
In the photo released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, he angrily glares directly into the camera with a slight snarl on his lips.
The first co-defendants to turn themselves in were attorney John Eastman and bail bondsman Scott Hall, who arrived at Fulton County jail on Tuesday.
Eastman wrote a memo laying out steps Mike Pence, the then-vice president, could take to interfere in the counting of electoral votes while presiding over Congress’ joint session on January 6, in order to keep Trump in office.
Former Georgia GOP chairman and state legislator David Shafer and former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham turned themselves in at the jail early Wednesday morning – both of their bonds set at $75,000.
They have all since been released.
Trump is seen arriving at the Atlanta airport on Thursday
The New York-born businessman arrived in Atlanta around 7pm on Thursday
Trump’s motorcade is seen leaving Atlanta airport and heading to Fulton County jail
Georgia-based lawyer Ray Smith and Trump campaign attorney Ken Chesebro were also booked on Wednesday.
Chesebro’s bond was set at $100,000, Smith’s at $50,000, and both were released from jail about two hours after they arrived.
Trump’s fiery former attorney known as the ‘Kraken’, Sidney Powell, surrendered on Wednesday afternoon in Georgia on $100,000 bond – and had her mugshot released.
Best known for the stories she spun about Dominion Voting Systems, Powell is another one of the ‘strike force’ lawyers who toured the country unsuccessfully pitching a voter fraud theory to any and all legal bodies.
An almost giddy-looking attorney Jenna Ellis, who was all smiles for her mugshot, handed herself over to authorities around the same time and was granted a $100,000 bond.
Ellis re-tweeted accounts saying she ‘absolutely owned that mugshot’ and ‘just made mugshots great again.’
Willis gave Trump and his co-defendants until noon on Friday, August 25, to voluntarily turn themselves over for booking and arraignment.
The 41-count charge against the former president and his 18 co-defendants marks the fourth and latest indictment against him. Trump has not had to take a mugshot for his previous three indictments.
He was charged with RICO – Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations – a count which is frequently used to try mafia figures, cartel leaders and gangland bosses.
He is also charged with solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer; conspiracy to commit forgery in the first-degree; perjury; and a host of other counts.
If convicted on all charges, he faces 71 years in prison – and state charges, unlike federal, cannot be pardoned by a president.
None of the 19 have yet entered pleas, since the arraignment process is separate from the booking process in Georgia.
Willis has asked for those arraignments to take place the week of September 5.
The defendants can waive appearing at that trial, which is where they answer the charges against them. Lawyers are allowed to speak on their behalf.
The FAA had issued a temporary flight restriction for the airspace around the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta due to a ‘VIP moment’ today from 6:45pm to 9:00pm ET.
The ex-president shook up the legal team handling his defense in the Georgia case, replacing attorney Drew Findling with Steven Sadow just hours before he headed down to Georgia to surrender.
The rest of his team including Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg are expected to remain.
He has also been booked in New York on an alleged hush money scheme, in Miami on accusations he mishandled classified information and in Washington, D.C. on his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In the photo released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Meadows angrily glares directly into the camera with a slight snarl on his lips
He posted on his Truth Social account on Wednesday that he was preparing to be ‘proudly’ arrested in Georgia.
‘NOBODY HAS EVER FOUGHT FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY LIKE PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,’ he wrote on his Truth Social account.
‘FOR DOING SO, I WILL PROUDLY BE ARRESTED TOMORROW AFTERNOON IN GEORGIA. GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!’
Before his mugshot was formally released, Trump’s campaign used a fake picture to fundraise on the back of the Fulton County sheriff’s threat. The campaign turned the image into T-shirts to sell.
The former president’s campaign claims it has raked in $8 million in donations since his first Manhattan indictment.
The Fulton County Jail is shown April 11, 2023, in Atlanta
Trump’s fundraising efforts sold T-shirts using a fake picture, as the former president’s campaign claims $8M in donations since his Manhattan indictment
Trump’s arrest also comes hours after the first Republican presidential debate.
Eight Republican contenders took the stage in Milwaukee on Wednesday night in a high-stakes face off.
‘If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party’s choice?’ asked Fox News host Brett Baier. ‘Please raise your hand if you would.’
Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, was the only candidate who refused to raise his hand.
‘I did not raise my hand. Because there’s an important issue we as a party have to face,’ he said. ‘Over a year ago, I said that Donald Trump was morally disqualified from being president because of what happened on Jan. 6.’
Trump refused to attend the debate and instead opted to participate in an interview hosted by Tucker Carlson, which aired five minutes before the debate kicked off.
Donald Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson had reached over 150 million viewers by early Thursday morning, giving his bid to steal the spotlight from Fox News’ presidential debate a huge boost.
The former president’s 45-minute sit-down on X, formerly known as Twitter, aired as his GOP rivals bickered on stage in the crucial night for the 2024 White House race.
Trump called his critics ‘savages,’ spoke openly about the potential death of 80-year old President Biden, and riffed about low-flow shower heads and electric cars.
He said he didn’t attend the debate because he is ‘leading by 50 and 60 points’ in the polls and didn’t want to be ‘harassed by people that shouldn’t even be running for president’.
The first Republican primary debate descended into chaos on Wednesday night
In the event, the debate descended into chaos, with Vivek Ramaswamy being called an ‘amateur’ and a ‘rookie.’
Ron DeSantis tried to stay out of the crossfire by focusing attacks on President Biden and touting how he would deal with the border crisis.
Mike Pence said he would back a federal abortion ban, while Chris Christie was booed for saying Trump’s conduct was ‘beneath the office’ of the president.
The debate got so chaotic that moderator Bret Baier of Fox News reminded the contenders: ‘We need to reestablish some ground rules. When we hear this bell, your time is done. We appreciate your aggressiveness here. 30 seconds is 30 seconds.’
Toward the end of the night, as the shouting continued when the candidates moved into a lightening round of questions, Nikki Haley pleaded to the moderators: ‘You have to get control of this debate.’