Trump Released on Bail From Georgia Jail After Being Booked on 13 Felony Counts

Former President Donald Trump was booked Thursday at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail on 13 felony expenses for making an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. He paid $20,000, or 10% of his $200,000 bond, by way of an area bail bondsman, permitting him to be launched after about 20 minutes on the jail. He’s anticipated to face trial as early as October. In Atlanta, we converse with two friends: Carol Anderson, a professor of African American research at Emory College and the creator of One Individual, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, amongst different books on race and civil rights in American politics, and Hugo Lowell, a reporter for The Guardian who has carefully coated Trump’s prison case in Georgia. Anderson discusses the Trump marketing campaign’s use of a protracted legacy of racism and voter suppression in an try and “overthrow democracy” by way of an “assault on Black humanity,” whereas Lowell shares what’s subsequent for Trump and his 18 different co-defendants, together with former Chief of Workers Mark Meadows and lawyer Kenneth Cheseboro, who first prompt the plot to create faux electors.

TRANSCRIPT

It is a rush transcript. Copy is probably not in its ultimate kind.

AMY GOODMAN: That is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Conflict and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

Donald Trump surrendered on the infamous Fulton County Jail Thursday night time, booked on 13 felony expenses for making an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. As soon as contained in the jail, he was fingerprinted and had his mugshot taken. He was launched after about 20 minutes on a $200,000 bond. Since March, the previous president has been indicted 4 occasions and faces a complete of 91 prison expenses.

On Thursday, Trump grew to become the primary former president to have his mugshot taken. Quickly after the photograph was launched, Trump started utilizing the photograph to boost cash for his presidential marketing campaign. He additionally posted the mugshot on the social media platform X. It was his first publish on the positioning since he was banned by Twitter after the January sixth rebel in 2021.

Donald Trump briefly spoke to reporters on the airport Thursday after he was launched.

DONALD TRUMP: What has taken place here’s a travesty of justice. We did nothing flawed. I did nothing flawed. And everyone is aware of it. I’ve by no means had such assist. And that goes with the opposite ones, too. What they’re doing is election interference. They’re making an attempt to intrude with an election. There’s by no means been something prefer it in our nation earlier than.

AMY GOODMAN: Trump’s former White Home Chief of Workers Mark Meadows additionally surrendered Thursday and was launched on $100,000 bond. A listening to will probably be held on Monday concerning Meadows’ request to maneuver his trial to a federal court docket. Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis has subpoenaed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and certainly one of his former staffers to testify at a listening to over the request by Meadows.

On Thursday, Willis additionally referred to as to maneuver the beginning of Trump’s trial to October twenty third, after certainly one of Trump’s different 18 co-defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, demanded a speedy trial. He’s the lawyer who proposed Trump use faux electors to attempt to overturn the election. A choose has set his trial to start on that very same day, October twenty third.

We go now to Atlanta, the place we’re joined by two friends. Hugo Lowell is a reporter for The Guardian who has carefully coated Donald Trump’s indictment in Georgia. And Carol Anderson is a professor of African American research at Emory College, the creator of many books, together with One Individual, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy. Her different books embody The Second: Race and Weapons in a Fatally Unequal America and White Rage: The Unstated Reality of Our Racial Divide.

Professor Anderson, let’s start with you. Your response to the reserving, this historic second, of the previous president of the US, the primary time ever? And it occurred in your state, in Georgia.

CAROL ANDERSON: It felt — given the sorts of strain that Trump placed on Atlanta and placed on Georgia and the focusing on of Fulton County as in some way this bastion of corruption, this felt like vindication. It felt like justice. It felt Nina Simone good.

AMY GOODMAN: That is approaching the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the March on Washington. In 1963, so many marched for voting rights, for civil rights. Discuss why you see this as a civil rights story.

CAROL ANDERSON: Oh, it was the assault on voting rights, as a result of in Fulton County — properly, in Georgia writ massive, 90% of African People who voted voted for Biden. Over nearly 70% of Latinos who voted in Georgia voted for Biden. And a bit over 60% or so of Asian People who voted voted for Biden. What you noticed with Trump’s crew, their try and wipe out these votes, it was the try and say that their votes have been illegitimate, the votes of minorities have been illegitimate, like they weren’t actual People. It was the identical type of assault that we noticed within the Jim Crow period, that these weren’t actual People and their votes didn’t rely. It was as if the march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Bloody Sunday was irrelevant.

And so, it was seeing this type of systemic and corrosive assault on the proper to vote, the proper to vote and to have your votes counted, and the way in which that African People have been denigrated in that assault as illegitimate, because the supply of criminality, because the supply of fraud, huge rampant voter fraud, the place you can have a Rudy Giuliani speaking about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss as drug sellers, passing out ballots as in the event that they’re passing out heroin and cocaine. That type of assault on Black humanity was the identical type of assault that led to the Voting Rights Act.

AMY GOODMAN: Hugo Lowell, you’ve been reporting on this for a while. We’re chatting with you in Atlanta. In the event you can share your response to what occurred final night time? As you wrote in your article earlier this week, “Trump had his authorized crew negotiate his reserving to happen in the course of the primetime viewing hours for the cable information networks.”

HUGO LOWELL: Properly, Trump mainly needed to give up within the night on Thursday as a result of he knew that if he may flip issues right into a spectacle, if he may flip it right into a circus, he would be capable to garner as a lot protection as he may, and, in doing so, distract from not solely the severity of the costs, as a result of he’s being hit with a racketeering cost on this case, but in addition from the indignity of getting to undergo the reserving course of.

You understand, him arriving on the jail in a motorcade on the time that he needed was so far as the particular remedy that he acquired went, frankly. The second he was within the jail, he was handled like every other prison defendant. And I feel that’s actually necessary, as a result of that was not how he has been handled in any of his different prison instances. He needed to be fingerprinted. He had his peak and weight recorded, though it seems that he got here up with that determine himself. After which he had his mugshot taken.

And for those who take a look at the mugshot, I feel you see two sides of Trump. You see a Trump who’s making an attempt to look defiant, and that was a face that he practiced within the lead-up to the reserving. However it’s also possible to see a way of concern in his eyes and the truth that that is turning into actually actual. And we all know from chatting with his aides and his advisers within the days main as much as his give up, he actually felt the enormity of what was coming down the road.

AMY GOODMAN: And might you discuss his new lawyer?

HUGO LOWELL: You understand, Trump has a historical past of firing legal professionals when prison investigations flip into indictments. You understand, we noticed it within the Mar-a-Lago categorised paperwork case when Jim Trusty, this former DOJ official, ended up getting let go when the indictment got here down. And it seems to be no totally different on this case. Trump beforehand had retained Drew Findling to be his lawyer for the whole thing of the particular function grand jury and the precise prison investigation, and when the indictment got here down, Trump in the end flipped him out for a brand new lawyer, Steve Sadow, who, in some ways, might be a more sensible choice for Trump anyway. You understand, Sadow has this fame of being a type of extra of a trial lawyer. He likes to beat his chest. He likes to go on TV. That was one factor that Drew Findling didn’t love to do. And I feel it type of underscores the place Trump’s thoughts is as he goes into trial.

AMY GOODMAN: And might you discuss him turning to a bail bondsman to fulfill the agreed-upon $200,000 bond?

HUGO LOWELL: Yeah. By going to a industrial bail bondsman right here in Atlanta, Trump will get out of getting to pay the complete $200,000. He can mainly put down 10%, or $20,000, and fulfill his circumstances of launch right here. And it’s fascinating that though he went to a bail bondsman, he really put up the $20,000, as we’re advised by folks near the previous president, himself, by way of his personal cash, which is uncommon as a result of all of his different authorized charges in the entire different prison investigations are being paid for by the Save America PAC. He has paying, mainly, all of his aides’ lawyer’s charges, his personal legal professionals’ charges, by way of the PAC. And to see him arise this $20,000 himself was a notable departure, I feel.

AMY GOODMAN: You wrote a piece on Wednesday, Hugo, headlined “Trump’s plan to skip debate shields him from authorized publicity.” Clarify.

HUGO LOWELL: Yeah, I feel this type of speaks to how Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign is so intertwined with the authorized crew. You understand, I feel folks prefer to assume, “Oh, the place does the authorized crew finish, and the place does the marketing campaign start?” However, actually, it’s all wrapped up in the identical operation. And that has its advantages, nevertheless it additionally has its drawbacks, as a result of each time Trump has given televised remarks every time he’s confronted with tough authorized questions, Trump appears to say a bit bit an excessive amount of and incriminate himself a bit bit additional.

You understand, the final two occasions that Trump was on TV, when he did the CNN city corridor, he exacerbated his authorized publicity with respect to the author E. Jean Carroll, who, the day after dropping his civil case throughout he was — that, mainly, a jury stated he was a sexual assault perpetrator, he went and doubled down on his claims. After which, when he was on TV with Fox in an interview, he mainly conceded to holding on to categorised paperwork even when he had been subpoenaed.

And so, I feel there was a palpable concern amongst his legal professionals and his aides that if he went and did the controversy and he was cornered with a authorized query, he may say one thing that will deepen his authorized bother. And so I feel there was a way of aid that, in the end, he didn’t go to the controversy and trigger himself additional issues.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Hugo Lowell, discuss these different developments, for instance, that Chesebro requested for a speedy trial, which individuals are entitled to, and a date has been set for October twenty third, which has implications for the entire co-defendants, or, as they’re referred to as, co-conspirators, and likewise Mark Meadows desirous to take this to federal court docket and the listening to set for Monday, the place now Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, has been subpoenaed to testify.

HUGO LOWELL: You understand, you’re beginning to see what occurs when you’ve gotten 19 defendants in a prison case. And what’s taking place is, mainly, you might be getting totally different conspirators with diverging pursuits in comparison with Trump. You understand, Trump’s overarching authorized technique in all of those instances is to delay. He desires to delay previous the presidential election, as a result of if he wins and he can set up himself as president, he can keep away from any form of prison legal responsibility that comes with a possible conviction as a result of he will probably be in workplace. However that’s not essentially the pursuits of the opposite defendants. You understand, Meadows, as an illustration, the previous chief of workers, desires to take away his case to federal court docket. We anticipate Trump to need to do the identical. However, you recognize, how is Meadows going to defend himself? Properly, he may say that he was working on the behest of the president, and that’s not precisely nice for Trump.

As for Ken Chesebro, the lawyer who got here up with the — or, was implementing the faux electors scheme, he moved for a speedy trial in Georgia, which underneath native guidelines right here means a trial will come, you recognize, in two grand jury phrases, and that’s why, as you stated, it’s been set for October 23. However that’s not in Donald Trump’s pursuits. Once more, you recognize, Chesebro gambled a bit bit right here and thought perhaps the district lawyer wouldn’t be able to go to trial, however, as we’ve got reported in type of the previous a number of weeks, the delay from the top of the particular function grand jury to the indictment seems to have been time the place the district lawyer was anticipating these pretrial motions and these pretrial rulings that may come, and mainly making certain they might be able to go to trial. And this may be the factor that turns round and bites them the place they didn’t anticipate it.

AMY GOODMAN: And might you discuss Harrison Floyd III, the previous chief of Black Voices for Trump, the one certainly one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants who stays jailed?

HUGO LOWELL: Yeah, this was fairly a flip yesterday. Harrison Floyd self-surrendered himself on the jail in Atlanta with out having negotiated a bond settlement. And so, what occurred was he was booked and processed like everybody else, after which he stays incarcerated within the jail, as a result of he doesn’t have negotiated circumstances of launch. And I feel this was fairly extraordinary, as a result of it seems that the District Legal professional’s Workplace had tried to inform him to return to their workplace and negotiate some form of circumstances of launch, and he didn’t try this, and he self-surrendered. And in the end, that’s the predicament that he finds himself in, which is exclusive amongst the entire 19 defendants.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s return to Donald Trump talking final night time.

DONALD TRUMP: I actually consider this can be a very unhappy day for America. This could by no means occur. In the event you problem an election — it’s best to be capable to problem an election. I assumed the election was a rigged election, a stolen election, and I ought to have each proper to try this.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Professor Anderson, he’s clearly framing this as a free speech challenge: It is best to be capable to problem an election; it’s best to be capable to converse freely. Your response?

CAROL ANDERSON: It wasn’t that he simply challenged an election by way of free speech. It was the prison actions that he undertook with a view to overturn the need of the voters. And so, the faux electors scheme, the place you’ve gotten individuals who fake to be the actual electors going into the state Home and signing a kind saying that they’re the precise duly elected electors, after which sending that kind to authorities officers, to the president of the Senate, to the top of the Nationwide Archives and to a federal choose right here in Georgia, signing it off, saying that Georgia’s Electoral School votes will go to Donald Trump, as if Donald Trump was the one who received the vote right here in Georgia, and he didn’t, in order that was fraud. And that was a part of the scheme to overturn this election.

And the opposite element of that is he’s saying that it was stolen. However there have been three recounts right here in Georgia. There was a hand recount of 5 million ballots. Biden received that hand recount. And that recount was performed November nineteenth. Then there was a machine recount. That machine recount was performed in — was accomplished in early December. And that confirmed that Biden had additionally received. However then what we’ve got are a sequence of legislative hearings the place Rudy Giuliani is spewing lie after lie after lie, mainly saying as much as 150,000 fraudulent votes have been solid right here in Georgia, and so, due to this fact, the state Legislature wanted to step in and overturn the outcomes of a free and honest election. After which there was a hand recount — not a hand recount, there was a recount of absentee ballots in Cobb County, which is a part of metro Atlanta, of those 15,000 ballots. These 15,000 ballots confirmed that there was nothing flawed with these absentee ballots. And so, right here you’ve gotten mainly three recounts displaying no fraud, however they continued to unfold that lie of fraud after which act upon that lie of fraud to attempt to overthrow a free and honest election.

So this isn’t about free speech. That is about making an attempt to launch a coup, making an attempt to overthrow democracy. That is an assault on American democracy. That’s what the cost actually is.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you in regards to the expenses towards Trevian Kutti, Harrison Floyd and Stephen Cliffgard Lee, together with solicitation of false statements, influencing witnesses, as they tried to persuade Ruby Freeman to make a false confession. Trump talked about Ruby Freeman 18 occasions throughout his name with Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger. How did these expenses make clear what was going down there?

CAROL ANDERSON: One is that they recognized African American ladies who have been doing the work of democracy as mainly being a risk to his presidency. Two, they lied. They only lied. And as Brad Raffensperger says, this was a sliced and diced video that they portrayed as being the alpha and omega of the smoking gun of proof that fraud had occurred, that they’d pulled out suitcases of ballots beneath a desk in State Farm Area after which copied them 18,000 occasions, operating by way of to jack up Biden’s victory, besides the hand recount, mainly, and the machine recount denies that, as a result of you probably have the ballots, then you definitely don’t have 18,000 extra votes.

And the focusing on of Ruby Freeman, by saying that, you recognize, she’s a hustler, dope vendor, hustler, hustler, hustler, linking Blackness with criminality, it was a option to then attempt to solidify that cost of fraud. And by then getting — so, when the minister goes to Ruby Freeman’s home and he knocks on her door and he or she received’t reply, after which he calls the Black man to say, “Oh, you recognize, she’s afraid of speaking to me as a result of I’m white” — once more taking part in the race card there. After which you’ve gotten Blacks for Trump then bringing in Kanye West’s publicist to attempt to persuade her to lie, to say that she did one thing that she didn’t do, placing monumental strain on this lady, placing monumental strain on this Black lady who was simply doing the work of democracy, to make her lie in order that it will present some degree of credence to Donald Trump’s lie. That’s extortionist strain. That’s an appropriate. That’s why he’s charged. That’s why they’re charged.