Left: FILE – In this Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, file photo, Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File). Right: FILE – President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File). Inset: booking photo of Donald J. Trump, via Fulton County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office.
The first former president of the United States to face any indictment, let alone four, surrendered on racketeering (RICO) charges at the jail in Fulton County, Georgia, as expected on Thursday, culminating in the release of Donald Trump’s long-awaited iconic mug shot.
For years, viral memes envisioned a photo of Trump glaring into a camera in jailhouse orange. In reality, Trump showed up in his trademark blue suit and red tie.
Though Trump was arrested, fingerprinted and booked in other jurisdictions, New York did not release a mug shot and there are no federal mug shots to be obtained. Fulton County mug shot practices differ, as the mug shots of Trump co-defendants there have already shown. All 18 co-defendants also charged as participants in a criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 election will be subjected to posing for the tell-tale jailhouse photograph.
Days before the surrender, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set Trump’s bond at $200,000 in total for the RICO, criminal conspiracy, false statements, and criminal solicitation charges the former president faces (totaling 13 counts in Georgia). When combining the Georgia case with the Manhattan DA’s falsification of business records case and special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents and Jan. 6 prosecutions in Florida and Washington, D.C., the felony counts stack up to 91.
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In the aftermath of Trump’s jail release, he “shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” as ordered by the judge.
McAfee warned against making any “direct or indirect” threats in social media posts or otherwise against co-defendants, witnesses, unindicted co-conspirators, victims, or “against the community or to any property in the community.”
The former president was also warned not to talk about case facts “with any person known to him to be a codefendant in this case except through his or her counsel.”
Earlier Thursday, Trump shook up his Georgia legal team by swapping out Drew Findling for Steven Sadow, a lawyer for the stars with RICO defense experience.
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