Former President Donald J. Trump was booked at an Atlanta jail on Thursday in his fourth criminal arrest this year, this time in a sweeping racketeering case accusing him and his allies of conspiring to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Mr. Trump flew to Atlanta in a private plane from Newark, N.J., and was whisked to the Fulton County Jail in a motorcade with a police escort, arriving at 7:35 p.m. He was then fingerprinted and photographed like other people accused of state crimes and released on bond.
About 20 minutes later, he returned directly to the Atlanta airport, where he briefly spoke to reporters on the tarmac before boarding his plane. Saying he had done nothing wrong; he called the charges a “travesty of justice” and added “we have every right to challenge an election we think is dishonest.”
His visit to the jail — a notorious facility often name-checked in rap lyrics and the subject of a Justice Department investigation into unsafe and unsanitary conditions — was a startling position for the former president to find himself in.
Mr. Trump was indicted last week, along with 18 political allies, as part of a sprawling racketeering case accusing them of engaging in a “criminal enterprise” whose goal was to “unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” The indictment includes 40 other violations of state law.
Here’s what to know:
- Mr. Trump’s bond was set at $200,000 on Monday, part of a whirlwind of post-indictment activity in Atlanta this week that saw more than half of the defendants show up at the jail to be booked by Thursday afternoon. Among them was Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, who declared the case to be “an attack on the American people.” Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, was booked at the jail on Thursday.
- Mr. Trump was listed in the Fulton County booking system as having “blonde or strawberry” hair, a height of 6 foot 3 inches and weight of 215 pounds. That weight is 24 pounds less than the White House doctor reported Trump weighed in 2018.
- Also on Thursday, Mr. Trump shook up his Georgia legal defense team, adding Steven Sadow, a veteran criminal defense lawyer who has taken on a number of high-profile cases.
- Three defendants are seeking to have their cases removed to federal court: Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official; Mr. Meadows; and David Shafer, the former head of the state Republican Party. If those efforts succeed, a federal judge could move all 19 defendants to federal court, mooting trial dates set in state court. A few weeks of legal wrangling remain before that is decided.
- Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress are working to protect him. Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, began an inquiry on Thursday into Ms. Willis, an elected Democrat — questioning whether she collaborated with Biden administration officials and targeting any federal funding her office receives.
- The defendants may soon make court appearances for their arraignments, in which they would enter pleas. But all of the defendants have the right to waive their arraignments.
Trump also gave an interview to Fox News Digital, telling them of taking the mug shot, “It is not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.”
Kelly asks Trump if he and his co-defendants are “in this together” and are they “one team.” Trump replies that he looked at some of the other mug shots, says that he looked at Rudy Giuliani’s. “Rudy shouldn’t be going through this,” Trump says. “He didn’t do anything wrong.” Trump, we should note, has repeatedly refused to help Giuliani financially until recently. He then says he doesn’t know “a lot of” the other defendants, whose lives he says are destroyed.
Trump told Kelly: “I went through an experience today that I never thought I’d have to go through.”
