Former President Donald Trump voluntarily surrendered himself to Fulton County authorities Thursday evening to face charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment alleging he and 18 others attempted to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia.
Trump arrived at the Fulton County jail surrounded by fanfare of bystanders who were there to support the former president or celebrate his fourth criminal indictment since March this year.
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The former president was booked as No. 2313827, according to jail records. His height was recorded as 6 feet, 3 inches and his weight as 215 pounds. He spent roughly 20 minutes inside before he was released on $200,000 bond.
Upon his exit, he gave reporters a thumbs-up, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He doubled down on the 2020 election being “rigged” and declared his innocence in remarks at the airport before boarding his plane out of Atlanta.
“It’s a very sad day for America. This has never happened. If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election, and I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election,” Trump said, adding that he did “nothing wrong, and everybody knows it.”
Trump and his other co-defendants will appear in court at a later date to enter a plea, but the former president’s attorneys reached a pretrial agreement in the meantime that included his bond amount, as well as stipulations prohibiting him from intimidating witnesses in the case. District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking to begin arraignments during the week of Sept. 5.
Unlike his previous surrenders, Trump had his mug shot taken upon entering the Fulton County Jail. Several of his co-defendants have had their booking photos taken, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, among others.
The booking process for Trump was also set to include medical screening and fingerprinting, according to a webpage for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
While Trump was released quickly after his booking, he still had to spend time in the facility, which has recently come under investigation by the Department of Justice for its squalid conditions, structural problems, and prevalence of violence. The investigation was opened after an inmate was found dead and covered in insects and filth.
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Trump faces 13 criminal counts in the indictment, the same number as Giuliani. They both face the most counts among the 19 co-defendants.
The indictment includes 41 counts in total. The charges were brought against several Trump allies, campaign officials, and attorneys who aided Trump in the aftermath of the election.
