Annisa Essack | kzn@radioislam.org.za
25 August 2023 | 15:00 CAT
2 min read

Photo Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

It’s a stunning turn of events: a former US president surrendered to the authorities on charges of conspiring to overturn an election result, posting a $200,000 bail to get out of a notorious Atlanta jail, then flying back to New Jersey and tweeting, “never surrender” (on X – the new platform for banned Twitter users).

This was Donald Trump’s fourth arrest in criminal cases in five months. Trump is among 19 co-defendants accused of plotting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, which he lost to Joe Biden by less than 12,000 votes. He was recorded in a phone call pressuring Georgia’s top election official to “find 11,780 votes” to change the outcome.

Some of his co-defendants have already surrendered to the authorities, including his former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. One of them, Harrison Floyd, the leader of Black Voices for Trump, is being held in custody without bail.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that the charges were politically motivated, but his police mugshot has gone viral. Some people have ridiculed it on social media, while others have used it as a symbol of support for his re-election campaign.

He hired a new defence lawyer, Steven Sadow, a veteran criminal defence attorney in Atlanta, replacing Drew Findling, who had represented Trump since his first arrest in April.

Trump is the first former or serving US president ever to be indicted. He has been arrested four times in five months in different criminal cases, but this is his first police booking photo.

He is expected to stand trial in Georgia next year. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.