Trump heads to Georgia to surrender in election case — his fourth booking of 2023

WASHINGTON – Another day, another surrender.

Former President Donald Trump left New Jersey Thursday evening en route to the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta for his booking on charges of unlawfully trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

Trump, who left Newark Liberty International Airport at 5:22 p.m. in his now-familiar plane, posted on Truth Social that he would be arrested at 7:30 p.m., but supporters and opponents of the 77-year-old had already gathered outside the facility northwest of downtown Atlanta for hours.

“Trump has shown his criminality,” said Nadine Seiler, 58, of Waldorf, Md. — who wore a tiara proclaiming membership of the “Fani Willis Fan Club,” a reference to Fulton County’s district attorney.

“He doesn’t pay his vendors. He doesn’t even pay his lawyers,” Seiler went on. “He has been trying to steal the votes of black and brown people, so I am offended by that. I feel it necessary to show up here and let these people, who are being brainwashed, know that Trump is a criminal. We have seen it. We have heard it.”

However, supporters of the 45th president far outnumbered his critics outside the jail.

“I think these indictments are a witch hunt, a political opposition to try to silence your political opponent, and make the other side think that he is a criminal,” said Marcia, a 60-year-old real estate investor from Marietta, Ga., who arrived with a friend at 7:30 a.m. “And I want to show him that his base is still out here, we’re loyal and I’m still going to support him through all of this.”

Trump and 18 others were indicted Aug. 14 on charges including violating the Peach State’s anti-racketeering law.

Thursday will mark the fourth time this year that the 45th president has been required to surrender to face criminal charges, but the Atlanta jail will be the first to take Trump’s mugshot.

Also unlike earlier surrenders in Manhattan, Miami, and Washington, Trump will not make his first court appearance Thursday night.

That will happen during his arraignment, which Willis hopes will take place the week of Sept. 5.

Trump’s attorneys and Willis agreed Monday to a $200,000 bond in the case, the highest of any of the 19 defendants. The second-highest bond was provided to former mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was released Wednesday on $150,000 bond.

At least 11 defendants in the sweeping case have turned themselves in, according to local records. 

On Tuesday, GOP poll watcher Scott Hall became the first co-defendant to surrender, followed soon after by Trump attorney John Eastman, the alleged mastermind behind the legal strategy to subvert the 2020 election. 

In addition to Giuliani, former Coffee County GOP Chair Cathy Latham, former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, former Georgia state Sen. David Shafer, Georgia lawyer Ray Smith, and former Trump campaign attorneys Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis all turned themselves in Wednesday.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows surrendered Thursday afternoon and was released on $100,000 bond. Harrison Floyd, the former director of Black Voices for Trump also turned himself in Thursday, but did not have a bond agreement and was being held at the Fulton County Jail. 

Floyd was charged earlier this year with assault on a federal officer after he allegedly twice struck an FBI agent “chest to chest” and then jabbed the agent’s face with his finger, according to an affidavit filed in the US District Court for the District of Maryland. 

The agent was attempting to serve Floyd, a former Marine and professional mixed martial arts fighter, a federal grand jury subpoena in Rockville, Md., on Feb. 23 when the alleged assault took place, according to the affidavit. 

The subpoena was in relation to special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into alleged efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to the Washington Post. 

Eastman, Bond, Powell, Chesebro and Ellis were given $100,000 bond; Latham, Shafer, and former police chaplain received $75,000 bond; Smith, lawyer Bob Cheeley, and former Trump 2020 campaign official Michael Roman each got $50,000 bond; and Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still and former Coffee County elections director Misty Hampton each received $10,000 bond.

Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark had petitioned federal courts earlier this week to stay their surrender until their motions to remove the case to federal court can be heard.

US District Judge Steve Jones denied both men’s requests Wednesday, writing that until a federal court formally takes jurisdiction over a state case, the state court proceedings can continue.

Meadows had first asked Willis for an extension to her surrender deadline of noon Friday, but she declined, stating the former White House chief of staff “is no different than any than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction.”

“The two-week was a tremendous courtesy,” she wrote in her response to Meadows. “At 12:30 p.m. on Friday, I shall file warrants in the system (against those who fail to surrender by that time.)”

A hearing on Meadows’ motion to remove the case to federal court will be heard Monday morning.