Chronicle: And Trump Set Foot In Jail… 20 Minutes

The dream of half of the United States, and the nightmare of the other half, came true this Thursday, even if it only lasted 20 minutes. Former President Donald Trump, long surrounded by the courts, finally set foot in jail, but was quickly released after posting bail.

The Republican complied with the order of Justice and turned himself in to an Atlanta prison to be booked on his fourth indictment. This time, for having tried to reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, where he narrowly lost to Joe Biden.

Trump's arrival in Atlanta, from the time he landed on his private plane until he was transferred to the Fulton County jail, was televised by the main networks in the country during prime time.

a historical photo

Inside the jail, prison staff noted his weight and height: 1.90 meters and 97 kilos. He fingerprinted him and took a photo for the mugshot, the first by a former US president.

With a frown, a challenging look and his usual red tie, Trump's image will go down in posterity, or at least will be immortalized on thousands of T-shirts of his supporters.

In none of his three previous criminal charges – the bribery of porn actress Stormy Daniels, the classified documents and the assault on the Capitol – had he had to appear in prison or had a mugshot taken.

The Fulton County sheriff had already warned that Trump would not have special treatment and that he would sit before the camera just like the rest of the defendants.

But the truth is that his signing was much quicker than usual, since the former president's lawyers had previously agreed with the Prosecutor's Office on a bail of $200,000 for his immediate release.

Some 20 minutes later, Trump was leaving prison in the same armored convoy he had entered , unseen by the press and without having to spend nights or even days waiting for a bail hearing, as many do. inmates of this prison.

He did not experience firsthand the unsanitary and violent conditions that exist in the Fulton prison and that have been the subject of a Justice Department investigation since last year a prisoner was found lifeless, malnourished and full of insects.

In front of the prison, dozens of extravagant Trump supporters, some repeat offenders in this type of event, braved the heat to express their support for the former president, with the help of ice cream sold by a cart that made a killing today.

With a sign that equated Trump with Nelson Mandela, Rick Hern, an Atlanta resident, told EFE that the accusation is "unfair" and claimed that Trump had "the right to investigate the elections if he believed there were irregularities."

And now that?

But what the Fulton prosecutor Fani Willis is really accusing him of is 13 crimes for having led a mafia plot with 18 allies to try to reverse his electoral defeat in Georgia, one of the key states to win the presidency.

If found guilty on all counts, the former Republican president could be sentenced to up to 76 and a half years in prison.

One of the main pieces of evidence against him is the recording of a January 2021 call in which he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes for him, one more than Biden had gotten.

The Republican considers all the cases against him a "witch hunt", and still today he continues to maintain the hoax that he won the 2020 elections.

Willis wants to show that Trump violated the so-called RICO law, a legislation used in Georgia to prosecute mafia bosses, and has proposed that the trial start on October 24.

For Fred Smith Jr., professor of Constitutional Law at Emerson University in Atlanta, the "timetable is very aggressive" and the prosecution is very complex, but he recalled that Willis has been successful in previous RICO prosecutions.

"It is a complex case but if there is someone who can do it, it is her," the expert told EFE.

This fourth accusation has gained special relevance because as it is a state judicial process instead of a federal one, Trump could not pardon himself if he regains the US Presidency.

And it is that the judicial processes have not made a dent in his popularity: the ex-president is the great favorite to win the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential elections, in which he hopes to fight again with Biden.

Just this week, Trump was notably absent from the first televised debate between Republican hopefuls for the nomination. Yesterday, it was delivered at prime time. He had the set he wanted in the Fulton jail.