Politics

By Jack Queen

ATLANTA (Reuters) -One of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in a wide-ranging election-fraud case in Georgia remained behind bars on Friday, after Trump and the 17 others charged in the case had reported to jail and posted bond.

Court records showed defendant Harrison Floyd was due to appear in court on Friday morning, but Judge Scott McAfee told reporters he would not appear after all.

McAfee said court records contained “misinformation” about Floyd’s case. “Mr. Floyd is entitled to a first appearance … one will not be happening today here,” he told reporters.

It was not clear what would have been discussed in Floyd’s hearing, but initial appearances typically address the terms of possible bond and conditions of release before trial.

All 18 other defendants in the case have been released after posting bond, records show. Bail amounts range from $200,000 for Trump to $150,000 for former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani to $10,000 for Misty Hampton, a former election supervisor in a rural Georgia county who is accused of tampering with voting equipment.

One of those defendants, attorney Sidney Powell, asked the court on Friday for her trial to begin by Nov. 3 at the latest, as is allowed under Georgia law.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had originally proposed a March 4 trial date for all 19 defendants, including Trump. But McAfee has agreed to a separate Oct. 23 trial for lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who like Powell had asked for an earlier date.

Trump’s legal team has not yet proposed a trial date.

MARTIAL ARTS, ASSAULTING FBI AGENTS

Floyd, a former U.S. Marine and mixed martial arts fighter, is accused of participating in a scheme to pressure an election worker to falsely admit to voting fraud.

In a separate case, he was arrested in Maryland in May and charged with assaulting FBI agents who tried to serve him with a subpoena, court records show.

It was not clear on Friday whether Floyd, who headed a group called Black Voices for Trump, had been denied bond or was unable to come up with the money needed to secure his freedom before trial.

For now, he will remain in Fulton County Jail, which is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice for violence and unsanitary conditions, as well as 15 inmate deaths last year. One of those was a man whose family says in a lawsuit was “eaten alive” by bedbugs.

Floyd’s non-appearance comes after a momentous day in which Trump’s mug shot from the jail was released. Trump, 77, was captured glaring at the camera in the first such photograph of a former president in U.S. history, yet another extraordinary moment for the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged Trump with 13 felony counts including racketeering for pressuring state officials to reverse his 2020 election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory.

After spending about 20 minutes at the jail on Thursday evening, Trump repeated the claim that Willis’ prosecution – along with the others he faces – is politically motivated.

“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice,” he told reporters. “I did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it.”

One of the final defendants to surrender, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, turned himself in early on Friday and was released on $100,000 bond, records show.

Trump has not yet entered a plea in the Georgia case. He has pleaded not guilty in two federal cases accusing him of seeking to overturn the 2020 election and retaining classified documents after leaving office, and to a New York state case linked to hush money payments to a porn star.

Far from damaging his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination, however, the four cases filed against him have only bolstered his standing. He holds a commanding polling lead in the Republican race to challenge Biden in the November 2024 election.

(Reporting by Jack Queen in Atlanta; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Luc Cohen; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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By Jack Queen

ATLANTA (Reuters) -One of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in a wide-ranging election-fraud case in Georgia remained behind bars on Friday, after he told a judge that he could not afford a private attorney to represent him and was denied bond.

Harrison Floyd said at his first court appearance that he could not afford a private lawyer and had been denied representation by a public defender because he did not qualify.

Floyd, who appeared virtually, said that it typically cost between $40,000 to $100,000 just to retain a private lawyer to fly to Georgia.

“I cannot afford an attorney for something like this,” he said, telling Fulton County Superior Court Judge Emily Richardson that he did not want to put his family in debt.

Richardson told Floyd that he could either hire a lawyer or represent himself.

It was not immediately clear why Floyd was told he could not be represented by a public defender. Generally, defendants must meet certain financial requirements to qualify.

For now, Floyd will remain in Fulton County Jail, which is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice for violence and unsanitary conditions, as well as 15 inmate deaths last year. One of those was a man whose family says in a lawsuit was “eaten alive” by bedbugs.

Floyd had maintained that he was not a flight risk, but he was told that the issue of the bond would ultimately be decided by Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case.

Trump and the 17 others charged in the case have already reported to jail and posted bond.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged Trump with 13 felony counts including racketeering for pressuring state officials to reverse his 2020 election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory.

Floyd, a former U.S. Marine and mixed martial arts fighter, is accused of participating in a scheme to pressure an election worker to falsely admit to voting fraud.

In a separate case, Floyd was arrested in Maryland in May and charged with assaulting FBI agents who tried to serve him with a subpoena, court records show.

All 18 other defendants in the case have been released after posting bond, records show. Bail amounts range from $200,000 for Trump to $150,000 for former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani to $10,000 for Misty Hampton, a former election supervisor in a rural Georgia county who is accused of tampering with voting equipment.

One of those defendants, attorney Sidney Powell, asked the court on Friday for her trial to begin by Nov. 3 at the latest, as is allowed under Georgia law.

District Attorney Willis had originally proposed a March 4 trial date for all 19 defendants, including Trump. But McAfee has agreed to a separate Oct. 23 trial for lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who like Powell had asked for an earlier date.

Trump’s legal team has not yet proposed a trial date.

‘TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE’

Floyd’s appearance comes after a momentous day in which Trump’s mug shot from the jail was released. Trump, 77, was captured glaring at the camera in the first such photograph of a former president in U.S. history, yet another extraordinary moment for the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.

After spending about 20 minutes at the jail on Thursday evening, Trump repeated the claim that Willis’ prosecution – along with the others he faces – is politically motivated.

“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice,” he told reporters. “I did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it.”

One of the final defendants to surrender, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, turned himself in early on Friday and was released on $100,000 bond, records show.

Trump has not yet entered a plea in the Georgia case. He has pleaded not guilty in two federal cases accusing him of seeking to overturn the 2020 election and retaining classified documents after leaving office, and to a New York state case linked to hush money payments to a porn star.

Far from damaging his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination, however, the four cases filed against him have only bolstered his standing. He holds a commanding polling lead in the Republican race to challenge Biden in the November 2024 election.

(Reporting by Jack Queen in Atlanta; Writing by Andy Sullivan, Luc Cohen and Noeleen Walder; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Christian Schmollinger)

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By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump leads Ron DeSantis by nearly 40 percentage points in the race for the Republican presidential nomination even after declining to debate the Florida governor and other rivals, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Friday.

The survey found that half of Republican respondents who followed the party’s first debate on Wednesday were more open to DeSantis’ bid – good news for a campaign banking on the event boosting his profile after a summer slide in opinion polls.

But it showed DeSantis remained stuck in distant second place with 13% of support of Republican respondents while Trump, the former president, had 52%, marginally higher than the 47% he received in a Reuters/Ipsos poll in early August.

The two-day poll gathered online responses from 1,004 U.S. adults, including 347 Republicans across the country, and had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 6 percentage points in either direction for Republicans.

DeSantis and seven other Republican hopefuls took part in the Milwaukee debate while a pre-recorded Trump interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson posted simultaneously on X, formerly known as Twitter, aimed to siphon away viewers.

Trump said before the debate he saw no political benefit to taking part given his enormous lead in opinion polls, despite his indictments in four separate criminal cases. The results of the Reuters/Ipsos poll appear to have borne that out.

While DeSantis stood center stage in the debate, he was overshadowed for much of the raucous two-hour event by tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who clashed with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and other candidates.

Still, about half of Republican respondents said they were more likely to support DeSantis based on what they had heard about the debate. About four in 10 Republicans said they were more likely to back Ramaswamy or Haley based on the debate.

Many had not warmed to Ramaswamy and Haley enough, however, to say they were now backing their bids. Only 5% of Republicans said they outright backed Ramaswamy while only 4% supported Haley, similar shares to what they had before the debate.

Former Vice President Mike Pence had 6% support from Republicans, but only one in five Republicans who followed the debate said they were now more open to supporting him.

Some 59% of the Republicans polled had followed the debate, with 19% saying they watched it live and the rest saying they had watched some clips or saw news coverage about it. Forty-one percent said they hadn’t seen or heard anything about it.

In a hypothetical match-up between President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, the larger pool of respondents, including Democrats and independents, were asked who they would pick “if the election for president were held today.”

Trump had 38% to Biden’s 32%. The rest said they weren’t sure, wouldn’t vote or would pick someone else.

On Thursday, Trump’s mug shot was released after he was booked at an Atlanta jail on more than a dozen felony charges as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)

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By Tom Hals

(Reuters) – Efforts by Donald Trump allies to move Georgia’s criminal case charging the former U.S. president with trying to overturn an election to federal court is raising legal questions that could delay a trial, which may be a key part of their strategy.

On Aug. 28, Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who was charged alongside the former president with trying to subvert the results of the 2020 election, will argue his case should be heard in federal court rather than in Fulton County Superior Court, where it was filed.

If Meadows succeeds, he would be tried before a broader jury pool that includes the Congressional district of conservative firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, rather than jurors solely from Fulton County, which voted for Joe Biden in 2020 by nearly a 3-1 margin.

Two other defendants, former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark and David Shafer, who was a Republican presidential elector nominee, have also filed papers citing a law known as the Federal Officer Removal Statute in a bid to transfer their cases.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is likely to do so as well, legal experts said.

A spokesperson for the Fulton County district attorney declined to comment and attorneys for Meadows, Shafer and Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

The removal cases will be heard by a federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia and could tie up the case in appeals if denied, legal experts said.

“The request for removal is definitely going to delay this trial and be complicated and messy,” said Eric Segall, a professor at Georgia State College of Law.

The removal question is just one of many that are likely to be litigated before a trial, adding to uncertainty about prosecutors’ request for a trial date as soon as Oct. 23.

DELAY AS A TACTIC

Trump, who has a history of using delay as a legal tactic, is also trying to move upcoming criminal trials in New York and Washington to other courts. He is also defending a criminal indictment in Miami.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 18 others with racketeering in a scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, which was won by President Joe Biden. No defendants have entered a plea in the Georgia case.

Willis accused Meadows of furthering a conspiracy by, among other things, joining Trump in urging Georgia’s secretary of state to change vote totals.

The federal officer removal law protects people from state prosecution for carrying out official federal duties.

The statute requires a defendant to prove they were an officer of the United States or acting at an officer’s direction, that the alleged acts were part of their official duties and that they have a federal legal defense.

Meadows argued in federal court papers filed last week that the acts described in the indictment fall squarely within the duties of a chief of staff: assisting the president by arranging meetings and making phone calls.

Prosecutors countered that Meadows was carrying out political activities – which U.S. government employees are barred from doing under a federal law known as the Hatch Act. Meadows in his court papers also said his political activity was protected speech under the U.S. Constitution.

“NOT RELATED” TO OFFICIAL ACTS

The removal issue has come up before in a Trump criminal case.

The former president failed to remove a case by Manhattan’s district attorney that accused Trump of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal on the eve of the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in July found that “hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts” and sent the case back to state court. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and appealed the ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Legal experts said the accused acts in the Georgia case are more plausibly related to official duties than the hush money payments in the New York case. If U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in Atlanta agrees, he would next examine if Meadows has a federal defense.

Meadows argued as a defense that he is immune under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which is similar to the removal law. It says that if a person were carrying out duties placed on them by federal law, they cannot be prosecuted for committing a state crime.

“In other words, if you actually successfully remove the case, then it probably gets dismissed,” said Josh Blackman, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law.

However, just because Meadows has a defense, that does not mean it would necessarily apply to the specific actions cited in the indictment.

Legal experts said Jones could allow the case to proceed in federal court and address immunity at a later hearing. If he determines immunity did not apply to the accused actions, the jury trial would take place in federal court, with the broader jury pool.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; editing by Noeleen Walder, Amy Stevens and Stephen Coates)

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By Helen Coster and Sheila Dang

(Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump returned to the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, with a post on Thursday showing his mug shot from his booking at Fulton County Jail in Georgia earlier in the day.

With his post appealing for donations, Trump reclaimed direct access to the public on the platform that banned him following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his supporters. 

On Nov. 19 the San Francisco-based app reversed its position under billionaire Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” who bought Twitter on Oct. 2.

Trump, who had over 88 million followers when Twitter banned him, posted a photo on Thursday of the mug shot with the words: “ELECTION INTERFERENCE! NEVER SURRENDER!” The post garnered more than 14 million views 50 minutes after going live.

Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account in January 2021, citing the risk of further incitement of violence following the storming of the U.S. Capitol.

He used Twitter and other social media platforms to claim his defeat in the 2020 election was due to widespread voter fraud and to share other conspiracy theories.

On Nov. 15 Trump launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024.

On Wednesday, Trump opted out of a Republican primary debate on Fox News, attracting millions of viewers who watched – or at least scrolled by – a rival interview on X.

That 46-minute conversation with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson had drawn nearly 250 million views as of Thursday night, according to the site’s statistics.

On Thursday evening, Trump broke from a vow that he would stick exclusively with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) startup. Trump had 6.4 million followers on Truth Social as of Thursday.

Truth Social has been Trump’s main source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app regularly in May. The former president has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticize his opponents and defend his reputation amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators.

A year ago, TMTG announced a deal to go public by merging with Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal – which would infuse TMTG with $1.3 billion in cash – is now in doubt amid investigations by the Department of Justice and SEC, which have delayed its closing. 

Trump’s company faces a crucial deadline when shareholders of DWAC have until 10 a.m., Sept. 5 to vote to extend the period of time DWAC has to complete its merger with TMTG. If DWAC does not get the votes, the SPAC will liquidate on Sept. 8.

Trump sued Twitter in 2021 over his suspension from the platform, arguing the move violated his right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

A U.S. judge in California dismissed the case, and a federal appeals court in Pasadena, California, is set to take up the dispute on Oct. 4. Attorneys for Trump have said his claims are still viable, and can be ruled on by the appeals court, despite his reinstatement to the platform.

(Additional reporting by Eric Beech, Costas Pitas and Mike Scarcella; Editing by Howard Goller and Stephen Coates)

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By Tim Reid

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Mark Clarcq is an independent voter in the presidential battleground state of Arizona. In 2016 he cast his ballot for Donald Trump, but as the former Republican president appeared at a Georgia jail on Thursday on criminal charges of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Clarcq said he will never support him again.

“He’s delusional. He’s still saying the 2020 election was fraudulent. In Georgia, he was definitely trying to gain votes he didn’t have. That’s an illegal process. Absolutely I support the Georgia indictment. The justice system should play out and I don’t think he should be pardoned,” Clarcq, 77, said in a shopping mall in northern Phoenix.

As Trump was arrested yet again on Thursday following his fourth indictment this year – and the second related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden – his support among Republican voters has been surging.

But more troubling in the long term for Trump, who is the front-runner by a wide margin in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is the reaction among independents like Clarcq to his legal troubles.

Arizona is one of six presidential swing states that will have a large say in who wins next November’s election, and which Biden narrowly won by just over 10,000 votes in 2020.

Independents are now the biggest voting bloc in the state, outnumbering Republicans and Democrats, according to new voter registration data released last month by the Arizona Secretary of State.

In Reuters interviews with 15 independents in Arizona about Trump’s arrest in Georgia on Thursday, only one said they would likely support Trump next November. The rest, like Clarcq, were repulsed by Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and what they see as his role in instigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

“I’m glad he’s been indicted,” said Susan Aitken, 71, a registered independent who voted for Trump in 2016. Aitken said she supports the Georgia charges.

“He was already talking about overturning the election even before he lost. Anybody else would be in jail by now.”

A Trump spokesman did not comment on what he described as a small, unscientific sample of independent voters.

In a July Reuters/Ipsos poll, 37% of independents nationally said the criminal cases against Trump made them less likely to vote for him for president, compared to 8% who said they were more likely to do so.

INDEPENDENTS UNDECIDED

Trump faces 13 felony counts including racketeering, which is typically used to target organized crime, for pressuring state officials in Georgia to reverse his election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Biden’s victory.

Trump also faces New York state charges over an alleged hush money payment to a porn star, and two sets of federal charges – one case in Washington involving election interference and one in Miami involving classified documents he retained after leaving office in 2021.

He faces 91 criminal counts in total.

Thom Reilly, a political professor at Arizona State University who has authored studies on independent voters, said recent elections in Arizona and in other battleground states show that independents have been the key swing votes in close elections.

“The winning party in the last four election cycles carried political independents,” Reilly said. In Arizona in 2020 – which Biden won by less than a percentage point – Biden carried independents by 9% over Trump, showing how crucial they were to Biden’s victory in the state, Reilly said.

Independents have yet to make up their mind about which 2024 candidate they prefer with one in five preferring Biden, the same number preferring Trump and the majority undecided in the July Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Strategists said that while the latest indictment will help Trump solidify support within his base and win the Republican nomination, his ability to capitalize on his legal troubles will be more limited in next year’s general election, when he will have to win over more skeptical moderate Republicans and independents.

Stu Rothenberg, a non-partisan political analyst, said Trump is in danger of losing enough independents and moderates to lose next year’s election, in part because of the indictments.

“Close elections are won at the margins,” Rothenberg said.

But some independents are still supporting the brash former reality TV showman, who asserts without evidence he is a victim of a judicial system biased against Republicans.

“I would vote for Trump, even though he’s been indicted,” said Dan Gilbank, 60. “This indictment is a political hit job.”

(Reporting by Tim Reid in Phoenix, Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)

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By Rich McKay and Andy Sullivan

ATLANTA (Reuters) -Donald Trump flew from New Jersey on Thursday to get his mug shot taken at an Atlanta jail as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former U.S. president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

Trump’s private airplane departed Newark International Airport as he journeyed to the Fulton County Jail, where several dozen supporters awaited his arrival. He said on social media that he would surrender around 7:30 p.m. Eastern time (2330 GMT).

Meanwhile, Judge Scott McAfee set a trial date of Oct. 23 for one of the defendants, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the charges against Trump and the others, had proposed that date. That trial date will not necessarily apply to Trump or the other 17 defendants.

Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, though the four cases filed against him have not slowed his momentum as the front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination to run against Democratic President Joe Biden in next year’s election.

Now the businessman-turned-politician who for years hosted a reality TV show is due to join the ranks of gangster Al Capone, crooner Frank Sinatra and other high-profile Americans who have posed for jailhouse photographs.

The image is certain to be circulated widely by Trump’s foes and supporters alike.

“We want to put it on a T-shirt. It will go worldwide. It will be a more popular image than the Mona Lisa,” said Laura Loomer, 30, a Republican former congressional candidate who mingled with other Trump supporters outside the jail on Thursday morning.

One of the most recognizable people in the world, Trump has not had to submit to a photo in the other three cases. But fake mug shots have circulated online since shortly after he was first indicted in Manhattan in March on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.

At least 10 of his co-defendants already have been booked. Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, was stone-faced in his mug shot while lawyer Jenna Ellis smiled.

All 19 defendants face a Friday deadline to surrender. Court records showed that Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, was booked on Thursday.

Trump faces 13 felony counts in the Georgia case, including racketeering, which is typically used to target organized crime, for pressuring state officials to reverse his election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Biden’s victory.

TRIAL DATE WRANGLING

Willis originally proposed a trial date of March 4, but moved it up after Chesebro asked that his trial start by October. Trump’s legal team has not yet proposed a date, but is expected to push for a much later start. On Thursday, his newly named lawyer Steven Sadow asked for Trump to be tried separately from Chesebro.

Trump is due to enter a plea on Sept. 5 and has pleaded not guilty in the three other cases. He has denied wrongdoing and has called all the cases politically motivated.

In addition to the New York state charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump faces two sets of federal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith – one case in Washington involving election interference and one in Miami involving classified documents he retained after leaving office in 2021. He faces 91 criminal counts in total.

Trump has agreed to post $200,000 bond and accepted bail conditions that would bar him from threatening witnesses or his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered that the airspace over the jail be closed beginning around 6:45 p.m. ET (2245 GMT), citing “VIP movement.” The jail has a reputation for grim conditions that have inspired rap songs and prompted an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday they would investigate whether Willis improperly coordinated with federal prosecutors. They previously launched an investigation of Bragg, who accused them of a “campaign of intimidation.”

About a dozen Trump supporters, some holding flags, gathered outside the jail awaiting his arrival.

“I’m here because I’m appalled at what’s happening,” said Bob Kunst, 81, a retiree who said he had driven from Miami Beach and stood outside the jailhouse with a homemade sign that read “Lock Biden Up.”

Trump’s planned jailhouse visit comes a day after his rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination met in Milwaukee for their initial debate. Trump skipped that event, instead sitting for a pre-taped interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.

“I’ve been indicted four times – all trivial nonsense,” Trump said.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren, Jack Queen, Jacqueline Thomsen, Kanishka Singh and Rami Ayyub; writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Will Dunham, Scott Malone, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis)

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By Rich McKay and Andy Sullivan

ATLANTA (Reuters) -Donald Trump arrived at an Atlanta jailhouse on Thursday evening to turn himself in and have his mug shot taken as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former U.S. president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

Trump’s motorcade pulled up to the jail at 7:34 p.m. ET(23:34 GMT), about 30 minutes after his private airplane landed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Among his supporters outside the jailhouse was Georgia U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of his most prominent backers in Congress.

Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, though the four cases filed against him have not damaged his front-runner status in the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.

The businessman and former celebrity-reality-star-turned-politician will join the ranks of gangster Al Capone, crooner Frank Sinatra and other high-profile Americans who have posed for jailhouse photographs.

The image is certain to be circulated widely by Trump’s foes and supporters alike.

“We want to put it on a T-shirt. It will go worldwide. It will be a more popular image than the Mona Lisa,” said Laura Loomer, 30, a Republican former congressional candidate who mingled with other Trump supporters outside the jail on Thursday morning.

One of the most recognizable people in the world, Trump has not had to submit to a photo in the other three cases. But fake mug shots have circulated online since shortly after he was first indicted in Manhattan in March on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election he won.

Earlier in the day, Judge Scott McAfee set a trial date of Oct. 23 for one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed that date in response to Chesebro’s request for a speedy trial. The judge’s order said the schedule does not yet apply to Trump or any of the other defendants.

At least 10 of his co-defendants already have been booked. Some, like Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor, were stone-faced in their mug shots, while others, such as lawyer Jenna Ellis, smiled for the camera.

All 19 defendants face a Friday deadline to surrender. Court records showed that Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff, was processed at the jail on Thursday.

Trump faces 13 felony counts in the Georgia case, including racketeering, which is typically used to target organized crime, for pressuring state officials to reverse his election loss and setting up an illegitimate slate of electors to undermine the formal congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 victory.

TRIAL DATE WRANGLING

Willis originally proposed a trial date of March 4 but moved it up for Chesebro after he asked that his trial start by October. Trump’s legal team has not yet proposed a date but is expected to push for a much later start. On Thursday, his newest Atlanta lawyer, Steven Sadow, asked for Trump to be tried separately from Chesebro.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the three other cases. He has denied wrongdoing and has called all the cases politically motivated.

In addition to New York state charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump faces two sets of federal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith – one case in Washington involving election interference and one in Miami involving classified documents he retained after leaving office in 2021. He faces 91 criminal counts in total.

Trump has agreed to post $200,000 bond and accepted bail conditions that would bar him from threatening witnesses or his co-defendants in the Georgia case.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered that the airspace over the jail be closed beginning around 6:45 p.m. ET (2245 GMT). The jail has a reputation for grim conditions that have inspired rap songs and prompted an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.

Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives said on Thursday they would investigate whether Willis improperly coordinated with federal prosecutors. They previously launched an investigation of Bragg, who accused them of a “campaign of intimidation.”

About a dozen Trump supporters, some holding flags, gathered outside the jail awaiting his arrival.

“I’m here because I’m appalled at what’s happening,” said Bob Kunst, 81, a retiree who said he had driven from Miami Beach and stood outside the jailhouse with a homemade sign that read “Lock Biden Up.”

On Wednesday, Trump’s leading rivals in the race for the Republican presidential nomination met in Milwaukee for their first debate. Trump skipped that event, instead sitting for a pre-taped interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson aimed at siphoning away viewers.

“I’ve been indicted four times – all trivial nonsense,” Trump told Carlson.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren, Jack Queen, Jacqueline Thomsen, Kanishka Singh and Rami Ayyub; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Joseph Ax; Editing by Will Dunham, Scott Malone, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis)

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By Jacqueline Thomsen

(Reuters) – A judge has set an October trial date for Kenneth Chesebro, one of the defendants charged with conspiring with former U.S. President Donald Trump to reverse the 2020 election results, after Chesebro demanded a “speedy trial.”

Here is a look at Georgia’s speedy trial law and how it might affect the sprawling case.

What is Georgia’s speedy trial law?

Criminal defendants in Georgia can request that their trial begin in the weeks after they are indicted, as long as jurors are available to hear the case. That timeframe is dictated by the “terms” during which each state court hears cases, and in Fulton County, the term begins on the first Monday of every other month.

Anyone indicted during the current term who demands a speedy trial must have their trial begin by Nov. 3 at the latest. Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was indicted last week with Trump and 17 others, is now set for trial on Oct. 23, before that deadline.

If a trial doesn’t start by that November date, then the defendant must be acquitted of all charges.

The state law stems from the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to a speedy trial but does not specify a time frame.

Will everyone in the Trump case have to be tried together?

No. Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the Trump case, on Thursday said only Chesebro’s trial will begin on Oct. 23. The judge has not yet set a trial date for the other defendants.

Trump’s attorney said on Thursday that the former president opposed Willis’ request for an October trial date, but did not suggest an alternative. The former president said that he will ask to be tried separately from Chesebro.

Would having separate trials affect the case?

The sprawling 19-person indictment alleges violations of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, law. That means prosecutors will have to prove each person charged in the indictment was part of an overt conspiracy to try and undo Trump’s election loss, and witnesses may have to testify at multiple trials.

Melissa Redmon, a law professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, said that prosecutors will want to try as many defendants together as possible, “since the whole point of RICO is to be able to tell the full story of what everyone did and how their actions were interrelated.”

(Reporting by Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Deepa Babington)

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(Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump faces numerous legal troubles as he seeks the Republican nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election. Trump, 77, denies any wrongdoing.

Here is a look at the major legal cases involving Trump.

GEORGIA ELECTION-TAMPERING PROBE

Trump on Aug. 15 was hit with a fourth set of criminal charges when a Georgia grand jury indicted him after an investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden in the state.

The indictment lists 19 defendants and 41 felony counts in all. All were charged with racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

The indictment cites a number of crimes that Trump or his associates allegedly committed, including falsely testifying to lawmakers that election fraud had occurred and urging state officials to violate their oaths of office by altering the election results. Prosecutors also cited the breach of a voting system in a rural Georgia county and the harassment of an election worker who became the focus of conspiracy theories.

Counts against Trump include violation of Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer.

Other defendants include Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell.

JAN. 6 AND THE U.S. CAPITOL ATTACK

Trump pleaded not guilty on Aug. 3 to charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in federal court in Washington that he conspired to defraud the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 election victory over him and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to prevent congressional certification of Biden’s victory. Prosecutors say Trump exploited the attack, refusing advice that he send a message directing rioters to leave.

Trump and his allies advanced claims of voting fraud that they knew to be untrue, prosecutors said. The indictment says close advisers, including senior intelligence officials, told Trump repeatedly that the election results were legitimate.

Trump and others organized fraudulent slates of electors in seven U.S. states, all of which he lost in the election, to submit their votes to be counted and certified as official by Congress on Jan. 6, the indictment said.

RETENTION OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS

Trump on June 13 pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami to charges also brought by Smith that he unlawfully kept classified national security documents after leaving office in January 2021 and lied to officials who sought to recover them.

Smith accuses Trump of risking national secrets by taking thousands of sensitive papers with him when he left the White House and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate and his New Jersey golf club, according to the indictment.

Photos included in the indictment show boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago stored on a ballroom stage, in a bathroom and strewn across the floor of a storage room. Those records included information about the U.S. nuclear program and potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the indictment said.

Trump faces charges that include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Also charged are Trump’s aide Walt Nauta and another Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, the latter with attempting to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago after a grand jury subpoenaed the videos in June 2022. Both also have pleaded not guilty.

The trial is scheduled for May 20, 2024.

NEW YORK ‘HUSH MONEY’ CRIMINAL CASE

Trump on April 4 pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted him in connection with hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006. Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s office accused Trump of trying to conceal a violation of election laws.

Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels but admitted to reimbursing Cohen for his payment to her.

Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and other crimes and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 during Trump’s presidency.

The trial is scheduled for March 25, 2024.

SEXUAL ABUSE AND DEFAMATION CIVIL LAWSUITS

A jury in federal court in Manhattan on May 9 found Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and then defaming her by lying about it in 2022. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. A judge later ruled that Trump had filed a “frivolous” appeal of his decision not to dismiss a separate defamation lawsuit by Carroll, concerning a similar denial by Trump in 2019.

Carroll is seeking at least $10 million more in a separate defamation lawsuit she amended after Trump criticized the verdict on CNN and on his social media platform. He has denied ever meeting Carroll and accused her of making up her allegations. A trial in that case is scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL CIVIL LAWSUIT

New York state Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, in September 2022 for alleged fraud by him and his family.

James accuses Trump of lying from 2011 to 2021 about asset values, including for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan, as well as his own net worth, to obtain better terms from lenders and insurers. The lawsuit seeks at least $250 million in damages from Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and others, and to stop the Trumps from running businesses in New York.

The trial is scheduled for Oct. 2.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, Luc Cohen, Karen Freifeld, Susan Heavey, Sarah N. Lynch, Jonathan Stempel and Jacqueline Thomsen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Will Dunham and Howard Goller)

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