Former President Donald Trump surrendered to authorities in Fulton County, Georgia on Thursday, Aug. 24, and became the first president in U.S. history to ever have a mugshot taken.
Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail on 13 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and other charges related to his alleged attempt to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
What made this surrender different from his previous surrenders in New York City, Miami and Washington, D.C. is that Trump was fingerprinted, had his mugshot taken and his weight recorded as 215 pounds before he was released after posting a $200,000 bond. (Related: Trump and former officials indicted for asking for phone numbers, encouraging people to watch TV, reserving rooms and other "petty" offenses.)
The entire process took approximately 20 minutes. After he was released, he quickly disappeared into a motorcade waiting outside the jail and went to the airport in Atlanta, where he issued a brief statement denying any and all wrongdoing and reiterating his sincere belief that he had the right to challenge the questionable results of the 2020 election.
"We have every right – every single right – to challenge an election that we think is dishonest," said Trump, who then accused prosecutors and Fulton County officials of election meddling by trying to derail his ongoing campaign for the 2024 presidential election.
"What they're doing is election interference," he said. "They're trying to interfere with an election."
Trump later shared his mugshot on X, formerly Twitter, his first post on the social media site since Jan. 8, 2021. He posted the mugshot with a caption reading: "ELECTION INTERFERENCE" and "NEVER SURRENDER."
Trump indicted with 18 other co-defendants in Fulton County case
Trump was booked along with 18 co-defendants in a trial that will start on Oct. 23. Trump's co-defendants include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who turned himself in for booking a day earlier after his bond was set at $150,000. He was charged with most of the same counts as Trump.
The former president's statements note that he feels sympathy for his co-defendants, whose lives he said "are destroyed" by the criminal charges.
"Those people that have been so unfairly dragged into this, these are high-quality people who don't even know why they were brought in," said Trump in one interview. "Those people have to be released. They have to be released from this horrible thing that they're going through."
Trump added that many of his co-defendants "don't have a lot of money, and some of them have almost nothing" and are not fit to deal with a potentially lengthy legal battle. They will be up against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat.
Trump's legal team is currently arguing with Willis over when the trial should begin. Willis herself previously suggested beginning the trial in March 2024 before she changed her mind and filed a request with a Georgia judge for the current Oct. 23 start date, which the judge granted.
Trump's legal team countered with its own motion to sever his case from that of one of Trump's co-defendants, lawyer Ken Chesebro, which leads to the possibility of multiple trials taking place at separate times.
Learn the latest news involving Trump's indictments at Trump.news.
Watch this episode of "Recharge Freedom" discussing how Trump's arrest and the release of his mugshot is destroying America and what it stands for.
This video is from the Recharge Freedom channel on Brighteon.com.
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