Washington
The Fulton County District Attorney had advised him to report to the jail around 3 a.m. during the off-peak period. Donald Trump preferred to arrive at the end of the afternoon, no doubt to be sure that the event was indeed the central subject of the TV channels in the evening, at prime time. The former reality TV star now transforms each of his court appearances into a media circus. A way to discredit the charges, hide the humiliation and play the victim to attract donations from his supporters. Each appearance at the courthouse or, like the one that took place on Friday in Atlanta (Georgia), at the prison, is carefully choreographed, with cameras following him from his descent from the plane. If the former president chose to be “proudly” arrested, as he said the day after the first Republican debate, it is also to grab attention and steal the show from his rivals.
This is his fourth charge. Donald Trump is accused of having organized a vast conspiracy with eighteen other people to manipulate the result of the November 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Accusations that the person concerned categorically rejects. Unlike other jurisdictions where the defendant appears in court first, in Fulton, he shows up at the jail and the hearing with the judge is scheduled for another day. The sheriff’s office had announced that the neighborhood would be “completely cordoned off”. A pro-Trump demonstration was planned for the morning outside the entrance to the building. But, on social media, his supporters claimed it was an FBI ploy to arrest them.
Under standard procedure, anyone arriving at this huge building is scanned to make sure they are unarmed, then they undergo a quick medical examination during which they are weighed. He then gives his fingerprints and is photographed from the front and in profile. Like any litigant, Donald Trump, officially 1.90 meters for 98 kilos, was no exception to the rule.
The big question that agitated the media was whether he would be subjected to the indignity of the “mug shot”, the mug shot. During the three previous indictments, he had escaped, because this type of shot is used to identify a criminal or to locate a fugitive. Not really necessary in the case of a presidential candidate. “Unless otherwise instructed, we will follow standard practice and therefore regardless of your status there will be a ‘mug shot,'” Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat said. The other eighteen defendants were entitled to it. Trump did not cut it. Closed face, frowning eyebrows, defiant gaze, he was subjected to the potentially infamous cliché on Thursday, a first for a former president in the history of the United States. The “mugshot”, made in the services of the sheriff of the capital of the State of Georgia, instantly found itself in “A” of the American media and made the rounds of social networks.
For its part, Donald Trump’s team wanted to play derision by printing on T-shirts, sold on its website for the modest sum of 36 dollars, a fake judicial photo bearing the words “Not Guilty”. As for social networks, they are full of bets and speculation on the weight of the ex-president, supposed to be displayed on the anthropometric sheet.
For ordinary people, the procedure usually takes several hours. But in the case of Donald Trump it was relatively quick. His lawyers negotiated in advance Monday the payment of a bail of 200,000 dollars, which allows him to avoid being remanded in custody.
It’s better if he doesn’t stay long in the Fulton County Jail because the place is nothing like a Mar-a-Lago resort. The facility is currently under investigation into its unsanitary conditions, overcrowding, violence and excessive force used against inmates. Seven people have died since the start of the year, including three since July. Last year, a 35-year-old man was found dead in the psychiatric ward. The autopsy showed he died of “complications due to severe neglect”. He was dehydrated, malnourished, and his body was infested with vermin. “This prison is a public health nightmare,” said Terrica Ganzy, director of the civil rights NGO Southern Center for Human Rights.
This may deter Donald Trump from blatantly violating the terms of his release. Under terms negotiated by his lawyers, he is prohibited from intimidating witnesses or his alleged co-conspirators or making “direct or indirect threats”. However, he spends his time, via his Truth Social platform, attacking prosecutors and judges… On Monday, he distinguished himself by calling the county prosecutor “incompetent and highly partisan ripoux”. Thursday, on his release from prison, he was again quick to denounce a “simulacrum of justice” and “electoral interference”.
