United States: Donald Trump is expected to be a lay lawyer in Georgia

Former U.S. President Donald Trump was on his way to a Georgia prison Thursday afternoon to surrender to authorities in the southeastern state of the country because of charges he made during the 2020 presidential election.

The event promises to be one of those historic spectacles that keep the country in suspense: after getting away with it during three previous criminal impeachments, this time he is risking the infamous “mugshot” ritual, taking a mug shot, a first for a former US president.

“Another sad day in America,” Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Community site shortly before heading to the state capital, Atlanta. He had previously hinted via the same channel that he would officially surrender at 7:30pm (1:30am Friday, Swiss time) “for having the courage to contest a rigged and stolen election”.

$200,000 bail

However, the Republican primary’s choice to retake the White House in 2024 with Fulton County Jail or Rice Street Jail is expected to be brief. Like ten of the eleven defendants who have already surrendered in the case, Donald Trump will be released on bail — set at $200,000 — barring unforeseen circumstances.

On Thursday, his last commander, Mark Meadows, was released on $100,000 bail at the overcrowded and notoriously unsanitary facility, watched by media from around the world, camped out for days in large tents. Another defendant, Harrison Floyd, remained in custody Thursday because of a lack of bail.

Earlier in the day, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani also made himself available to authorities, as Fulton’s District Attorney Fannie Willis qualified the charges as “unconstitutional assault.”

Viral mugshots

On August 14, a grand jury assembled by prosecutors indicted Donald Trump and 18 others for illegally attempting to alter the outcome of the 2020 election, which incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden won in the key state. Many defendants argue that these cases “crime” freedom of expression in election disputes.

All who pushed through the prison door, some in the middle of the night, saw their trail immortalized and their “mugshot” circulated on television and social networks. There are rules in place to take fingerprints. As of Thursday morning, both prison entrances were closed to traffic, except for law enforcement vehicles.

At one of the entrances, officers in bulletproof vests waited in a pick-up truck. Ahead of his visit, Donald Trump officially replaced the head of his attorney general’s office in Georgia on Thursday. No explanation was given for replacing Drew Findling with Atlanta bar tenant Steven Sato, both of whom are used to protecting celebrities.

Four charges

But Steven Sato has criticized the organized crime statute that prosecutors have used in the past to charge the 19 defendants collectively, and which carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison. The 19 defendants are expected to appear before authorities by noon on Friday. They are expected to return to Atlanta, this time in court, possibly the week of Sept. 5, to announce whether or not they will plead guilty.

Donald Trump is the subject of four criminal charges, two at the federal level, in Washington and Florida (Southeast), one in New York State, and one in Georgia. Legal clouds may be gathering, but every turn brings him millions of dollars in donations, leading Trumpists to believe he is the victim of a “witch hunt” designed by the Biden administration to remove him from the presidency.

(AFP)Show comments