Trump surrenders to Georgia authorities ahead of trial, historic mugshot released

ATLANTA - The Fulton County Sheriff's Office showed no special treatment as former President Donald Trump was booked into jail on 13 felony charges Thursday evening. A short time later, Trump's mug shot was released to the public. 

Trump arrived in his private plane at about 7 p.m. EST in Atlanta.

He descended the stairs to an awaiting motorcade as he has at so many campaign appearances, but this time, the route led straight to the Fulton County Jail.

Outside the jail, Trump supporters waited, with some saying they still believe Trump won the 2020 presidential election despite multiple vote recounts, court decisions, and repeated statements from top Georgia Republican officials that Trump got fewer votes than Joe Biden.

Trump spent only about 20 minutes in the jail. His legal team had already agreed to a $200,000 bond and conditions including a ban on Trump making any threats or intimidating remarks to co-defendants, witnesses or victims.

"In these form bail forms, there are instructions to not speak with other defendants, or they are instructed in what ways they can do this, but obviously the president is engaged in a political campaign here," said Carlos Singh.

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Carlos Singh, a former federal prosecutor and lecturer at San Jose State University, says the judge and district attorney will be keeping a close eye on Trump to protect the potential jury selection.

"You can speak all you want about politics but if you're trying to intimidate witnesses or trying to contaminate the jury pool that's where we're going to draw the line," said Singh.

Before boarding his private plane, Trump stopped briefly to make a statement.

"This should never happen. If you challenge an election you should be able to challenge an election. I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election. And I should have every right to do that," said Trump.

A short time later, Trump posted his own mug shot on his social media accounts with a call for donations.

Also on Thursday, Ohio Republican Jim Jordan  who chairs the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, calling her actions politically motivated and saying the committee will launch an investigation into her case.

The Trump campaign says Trump was just exercising his free speech.  

Singh points out that the Georgia charges address specific actions taken by Trump, such as his conversations with top Georgia Republicans regarding the vote counts. 

"That's very different from free speech. What the prosecution is going to do is focus more on the acts committed by all these individuals in terms of obstructing justice, making false statements and being involved in corrupt activities. That's what they're going to focus on in terms of trying to convict them, not the criticism that he may have that he feels that the election was not fair," said Singh.

Willis has said she wants to move forward quickly and requested a trial date in October.