Former President Donald Trump is expected to turn himself in at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday after being criminally charged in a Georgia case claiming he led a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the 2020 election results.
After being booked, Trump will be released on a $200,000 bond.
Melissa Redmon, assistant clinical professor and director of the Prosecutorial Justice Program at the UGA School of Law and former Fulton County Assistant District Attorney, said the process on Thursday should be quick.
“He would go in. They will take all of his identifying information. His mugshot will be taken. He'll be fingerprinted, and that's necessary for the charges to actually be attached to him, as opposed to anyone else,” Redmon said. “And that would actually create a criminal history for him. The process takes about as long as it takes the computer to process all of this information.”
Under the conditions of his bond, Trump is not required to stay in Georgia, but an arraignment is set for the week of Sep. 5 where he will enter his plea. Prosecutors are seeking a trial date in March 2024, but Redmon says this is where things might get more complicated.
“In this particular case, I imagine that there'll be a motion to remove the case to federal court, and that kind of puts everything in state court in a holding pattern until the federal judge decides whether or not the case will go into the federal system or stay in the state system,” she said.
18 other co-defendants are charged in this case including ex-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. This is Trump’s fourth indictment, and he now faces 91 charges across 4 different cases, as he runs for president in 2024.
