Trump surrenders at Georgia jail on charges he attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss
Washington (PTI): Donald Trump has surrendered to authorities in Georgia at the Fulton County Jail on charges of plotting to overturn the state's 2020 election results in an unprecedented moment resulting in the first-ever mug shot of a former American president.
Trump, 77, spent about 22 minutes inside the jail where he was booked before his release on Thursday. A massive motorcade and police presence accompanied him to the jail from the Atlanta airport and back.
His surrender in Georgia marks the fourth time this year the former president has turned himself in after criminal charges were brought against him by federal and state officials. But it's the first time he was subjected to a mug shot.
Trump, a Republican, also posted the mug shot to his X account, formerly known as Twitter, as well as to Truth Social, both posts with the words "election interference" and "never surrender." It marked Trump's first tweet since January 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol riots.
The Fulton County Jail released a mugshot picture of him, which soon went viral. The jail authorities recorded him as being 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 215 pounds (97kg), with blond or strawberry hair and blue eyes. His inmate number was P01135809.
Released on a bail of USD 200,000 bond, Trump told reporters soon thereafter that he did nothing wrong.
The conditions of the agreement in part prohibit Trump from intimidating his co-defendants, witnesses or alleged victims in the case, including on social media.
Before he boarded his plane back to New Jersey, Trump said that it was "a very sad day for America."
"You should be able to challenge an election," he said. "I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election, and I should have every right to do that."
Trump's booking at the Fulton County Jail came 10 days after the former president was charged in Georgia in what was his fourth criminal indictment since March and his second tied to his alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results and remain in the White House.
Trump was charged alongside 18 co-defendants with meddling in Georgia's election results following his loss to Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in that state.
Trump is facing 13 counts in the Georgia case, including violating the state's racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.
Trump argues the cases against him are politically motivated because he is leading the Republican race to challenge President Biden, a Democrat, in next year's presidential election.
Half of his co-accused have already been booked at Fulton County Jail in recent days ahead of Friday's deadline. They include former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Soon after his mugshot was released, Trump's campaign released it to his supporters for fundraising.
"After spending years trying to overturn the 2020 election, Trump and his associates are FINALLY being held accountable. Our work is far from over, though," his campaign wrote.
"This is truly a sad day for America," wrote his son Donald J Trump Jr.
Ahead of his surrender, Trump made changes to his legal team, bringing in Steven Sadow, an Atlanta-based lawyer who specialises in white-collar and high-profile defence, The Washington Post reported.
Sadow entered his appearance as lead counsel for Trump on Thursday, according to a filing with the Fulton County Superior Court, and accompanied Trump to the jail.
Sadow is expected to replace Drew Findling, the lead attorney on Trump's defence team.
Trump continued to criticise Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, whom he accuses of trying to sabotage his White House campaign.
Posting on his Truth Social platform, he blamed Willis for murder and violent crime in Atlanta, writing that "people are afraid to go outside to buy a loaf of bread".
According to The New York Times, The booking of Trump at the Fulton County Jail is only the start of a long legal battle, made more complex by the case's large number of other defendants.
The next step is arraignment a formal first appearance before a judge to be formally charged, set bail and enter a plea. The Fulton County district attorney, Fani T. Willis, has asked the court to hold the arraignments the week of September 5, the daily reported.
In all Trump faces 91 criminal cases in all four cases. This includes criminal prosecutions in New York in connection with a hush money payment, in Florida for his handling of classified documents and in Washington, DC, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Republican presidential aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy called Trump's booking as shameful.
"I think this is shameful. This is an indictment not of Donald Trump, but of our national civic health," the Indian-American told Fox News.
"That we have gotten to a place where we have a party in power that will use any charge in any jurisdiction four at the same time in the middle of an election, designed, mark my words, to stop their lead political rival currently from running," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
After poll debacle, defeated MVA candidates to seek verification of EVM-VVPAT units
Mumbai(PTI): The Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates who faced defeat in the recent Maharashtra assembly polls have decided to seek verification of the EVM-Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) units in their segments, a leader of the opposition alliance said.
Many losing candidates of the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) pointed fingers at the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during their interaction with party head Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday.
Thackeray took stock of the lacklustre performance of his party at a meeting held at his residence in Mumbai.
The poll verdict last week saw the Mahayuti coalition, comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP, and NCP, retaining power with a massive mandate, pushing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to margins.
The Mahayuti won 230 seats and MVA only 46 in the 288-member House.
The Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) emerged as the largest party in the opposition camp by winning 20 seats, followed by Congress which bagged 16 constituencies, while the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) sits at the bottom with a tally of 10 seats.
Talking to PTI on Tuesday, Congress leader Arif Naseem Khan, who lost the election from Chandivali assembly constituency in Mumbai, said he held a discussion with Thackeray, who also said he has got complaints from his party workers that EVMs could have been tampered.
"We are getting complaints from different parts of the state expressing doubts over the results. In a democracy, complaints need to be verified and many of us, including myself, (who faced defeat) are in the process of applying for the verification," Khan said.
As per the Supreme Court's judgement on April 26 this year, the burnt memory/microcontroller in 5 per cent of the EVMs - the control unit, ballot unit and the VVPAT - per assembly constituency shall be checked and verified by a team of engineers from manufacturers of the EVMs, after the announcement of results, for any tampering or modification, he said.
A written request for this has to be made by candidates who are in the second or third position behind the highest polled candidate.
Such a request has to be made within seven days of declaration of the result, Khan said.
A candidate making the request will have to pay the expenses of Rs 41,000 which will be refunded in case the machine is found to be tampered with, he said.
The microcontroller is a one-time programmable chip embedded into the three units of EVM-Ballot Unit, Control Unit and the VVPAT - at the time of manufacturing, as per the SC.
A Sena (UBT) MLA from Mumbai has claimed there were discrepancies between the votes polled and the votes counted in the EVMs.
"Almost all candidates raised doubts over the EVMs," the legislator said.
