Roads between the Atlanta airport and the Fulton County Jail were blocked off as former President Donald Trump arrived in a motorcade to turn himself in on charges related to his efforts to remain in power after his 2020 election loss, giving the scene something of a presidential aura.
But Trump was going to do something no other president has ever done — surrender for booking on criminal charges and have a mug shot taken.
As word spread that Trump was on his way, demonstrators near the main entrance on the Rice Street side of the jail lined security barricades two to three deep. There were more Trump supporters than opponents braving the intense Georgia summer heat, but both groups were outnumbered by media. The crowd, which began gathering in the morning, had grown as the hour of Trump’s booking approached.
Trump entered on the opposite side, along Jefferson Street, where police had blocked off the entrance. Fulton County sheriff’s deputies blocked one end of the block with an empty prisoner bus, while a county dump truck blocked the other end.
Many in the crowd wore pro-Trump T-shirts and waved large flags, including one that proclaimed “TRUMP WON.” Shortly after 6 p.m., U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and a staunch Trump defender, spoke briefly to the crowd.
“I’m telling you right now, regular Americans are watching this, and they are disgusted and they’re outraged,” she told reporters shortly before Trump’s arrival.
It was the fourth time this year that Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, was booked on criminal charges. But unlike his previous arrests, which happened in courthouses just before initial appearances before a judge, this time he had to turn himself in at a notoriously troubled jail. In another departure, he had a booking photo taken.
Trump and 18 others were indicted last week, accused by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of participating in a sprawling scheme to undermine the will of Georgia voters, who had narrowly rejected the Republican incumbent in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. Many of the others charged turned themselves in at the jail earlier this week, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis on Wednesday and John Eastman on Tuesday.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat had said Trump, and the others in this case, would be treated like anyone else — notably saying at a news conference earlier this month: “Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you.”
(AP News, Photo: AP)