Donald Trump and 18 others charged with an unlawful scheme to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election all turned themselves in forward of Friday’s courtroom deadline.
After the previous president was booked in Fulton County Jail in Atlanta — scowling on the digicam for the first-ever mug shot of a former president — seven remaining co-defendants did the identical.
Trump, who’s operating for president within the 2024 election, had already made historical past as the primary former US president to face prison costs – not as soon as however 4 instances. This, nevertheless, was the primary time he needed to pose for a reserving photograph.
The 77-year-old wasted no time utilizing the image for fundraising functions, posting it on social media and even having a T-shirt made that supporters may purchase for $34.
Trump’s backers consider that, removed from harming his possibilities, the image may very well be an asset to his marketing campaign.
“It can go worldwide. It is going to be a extra in style picture than the Mona Lisa,” mentioned Laura Loomer, a former Republican congressional candidate.
Inside minutes of the mug shot’s launch, Trump’s marketing campaign used it in a fundraising enchantment on its web site. “BREAKING NEWS: THE MUGSHOT IS HERE,” reads the topic line of the marketing campaign’s newest fundraising e mail, which advertises the brand new T-shirt.
“This mugshot will ceaselessly go down in historical past as an emblem of America’s defiance of tyranny.”
All however considered one of Trump’s co-defendants have been launched on bail. Harrison William Prescott Floyd, who’s accused of harassing an election employee, didn’t negotiate bail and remained behind bars on Friday night.
Federal courtroom information present Floyd, a former US Marine lively with the group Black Voices for Trump, was additionally arrested three months in the past on a federal warrant that accuses him of aggressively confronting two FBI brokers despatched to serve him with a grand jury subpoena.
Fulton County Superior Court docket Decide Scott McAfee is now anticipated to set listening to dates for every of the defendants within the coming weeks, to enter a plea of responsible or not responsible.
The case filed beneath Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act is sprawling, and the logistics of bringing it to trial are more likely to be sophisticated.
Some defendants have already sought to have a quicker, truncated trial whereas there’s hypothesis Trump will attempt to transfer the case to a federal courtroom.
Trump lawyer Steve Sadow has additionally filed an objection to the proposed broad October trial date and a March date that has beforehand been urged.
Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
