Aidan O’Sullivan looks at Trump's surrender at Georgia Jail
On the 24th of August, 2023, a momentous event in US history occurred. The mugshot of Donald J. Trump, taken as a result of his indictment and surrender at Fulton County Jail in the state of Georgia, became the first mugshot ever to be taken of a US president. The photo emerged as a result of the ongoing legal battles that have engulfed the former US President since he left office. On the 14th of August, the 45th president of the United States was charged with 13 different accounts in Georgia, alleging that he and his 18 other co-conspirators were guilty of conspiracy to alter the 2020 election results of the presidential election.
This is the fourth indictment Trump has faced over the last year. Currently, the former president is facing similar charges on a federal level in Washington, has been charged with the retention of classified documents in Florida and has faced another indictment in Manhattan over hush money paid to pornstar Stormy Daniels.
How these charges will affect Trump’s campaign for the presidency in 2024 remains to be seen. The president himself seems undeterred by his potential criminal status. His campaign has already attempted to rebrand the image under the outsider platform that Trump first ran on. Posting on his Twitter, the day after his surrender, the mugshot can now be seen plastered with the words ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Never Surrender.’
Posting on his Twitter, the day after his surrender, the mugshot can now be seen plastered with the words ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Never Surrender.’
To date, there has been no precedent wherein the question of a criminal being elected was an actual possibility. If he is found guilty and wins the 2024 election, Trump would still be entitled to hold office but would also be obligated to serve his sentence. The American legal system has not been crafted to deal with the realistic possibility of a criminal being elected president. If he was elected, Trump could technically pardon himself for his federal indictments but would be unable to do so for crimes found guilty through the state system. However, he could request for his state cases to be remanded to federal court, but this would be up to the judge overseeing the case.
The American legal system has not been crafted to deal with the realistic possibility of a criminal being elected president. If he was elected, Trump could technically pardon himself for his federal indictments but would be unable to do so for crimes found guilty through the state system.
Among his alleged co-conspirators include former New York Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former Trump white house Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. One of the key differences between the indictment in Georgia and its fellows in Florida, Washington and Manhattan is the large number of people being charged. Something made possible through Georgia’s RICO Act, traditionally used to combat organised gang activity. The act allows Fulton County DA Fani T. Willis to link numerous defendants in her argument to create an overall charge of an organised conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia by Trump and his allies.
On his social media platform Truth Social, the disgraced former president has been outright in his criticism of DA Willis in terms of both her competency and supposed Democrat bias. Trump, along with a small minority of Republican figures, have called for her impeachment. However, Governor Kemp of Georgia has refused to initiate a special session which would begin the impeachment process on the grounds that it would be “not feasible and may ultimately prove to be unconstitutional.”