How Trump Could Be Arrested and Booked and What's Next

Authorities standing near barricades outside the Fulton County courthouse in preparation for District Attorney Fani Willis announcing an indictment in her investigation into election meddling, in Atlanta.Credit...Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

 

The former president must surrender to the authorities in Fulton County, Ga., by noon on Aug. 25, the district attorney said. 

Three police officers standing outside a courthouse.

Authorities standing near barricades outside the Fulton County courthouse in preparation for District Attorney Fani Willis announcing an indictment in her investigation into election meddling, in Atlanta.Credit...Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

Richard FaussetDanny Hakim

By Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim

 

Former President Donald J. Trump has until no later than noon on Aug. 25 to voluntarily surrender to authorities in Fulton County, Fani T. Willis, the district attorney, said on Monday.

The script that officials in Atlanta will follow for his arrest and booking is likely to deviate from the standard operating procedure, just as it did when Mr. Trump was arrested on separate charges in New York in April.

In New York, prosecutors contacted a lawyer for Mr. Trump on the evening of March 30 “to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment,” according to a post on Twitter by the district attorney, Alvin Bragg. The move was unsurprising, as suspects in white-collar cases are often given a chance to turn themselves in.

A few days later, Mr. Trump was fingerprinted and escorted through a Manhattan courthouse after surrendering to investigators from the district attorney’s office. But he was also allowed to forego certain procedural indignities, including being handcuffed and having his booking photo taken. 

Some of those accommodations were likely arranged in pre-arrest discussions that the Secret Service conducted with their counterparts in the New York Police Department. In Georgia, similar coordination is likely to be undertaken by the Secret Service and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department, which is responsible for the main jail system for Atlanta, as well as courthouse security.

In the months leading up to Mr. Trump’s arrest, sheriff’s department officials declined to discuss the logistical details, although the Fulton County sheriff has said Mr. Trump won’t receive any special treatment. The department’s website notes that most people arrested in Fulton County are taken to the main jail on Rice Street, just northwest of downtown Atlanta and close to Bankhead, a working-class neighborhood rich in local hip-hop lore.

At the jail, arrestees typically undergo medical screening, fingerprinting, a check for outstanding warrants and have their mug shot taken. “All arrestees who do not bond out of jail will routinely appear before a judge within 24 hours after arrest,” the website states. 

Richard Fausset is a correspondent based in Atlanta. He mainly writes about the American South, focusing on politics, culture, race, poverty and criminal justice. He previously worked at The Los Angeles Times, including as a foreign correspondent in Mexico City. More about Richard Fausset

 

Trump Indicted in Georgia

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• Prosecutors in Atlanta accused Donald J. Trump and his allies of pushing to unlawfully overturn his election loss in Georgia in 2020. It is the fourth major criminal case facing the former president. A woman in a dark suit stands behind a lectern with microphones on it. She is flanked by two men wearing suits and ties.



• Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis charged former President Donald J. Trump as part of a “criminal enterprise” seeking to overturn the Georgia election results.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
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• By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and James C. McKinley Jr.
• Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reported from Atlanta.
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• Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted for a fourth time on Monday, this time over what prosecutors in Atlanta described as his and his allies’ efforts to unlawfully undo his election loss in Georgia in 2020.
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• The indictment follows a lengthy investigation by Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, and includes 13 charges against Mr. Trump, as well as charges against 18 other Trump allies who Ms. Willis said were part of a “criminal enterprise” seeking to overturn the Georgia election results.
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• Here’s what to know.
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• Trump was charged under Georgia’s RICO Act
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• Prosecutors charged Mr. Trump and his allies under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, which allows them to tie together various crimes committed by different people by arguing that they were acting together for a common criminal goal.
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• Georgia’s RICO Act is patterned after a federal law that was passed to combat organized crime groups but in recent years has been used effectively in white-collar crime and political corruption cases.
•  At its heart, the statute requires prosecutors to prove the existence of an “enterprise” and a “pattern of racketeering activity.” Ms. Willis said 19 defendants were part of a criminal enterprise that tried to “accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the president’s office.” 
• Donald Trump is seen in a dark blue jacket and a button-down shirt with no tie.
• Mr. Trump and his allies were charged under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization Act.Credit...Jon Cherry for The New York Times
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• Among those charged: Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows.
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• The charges outlined in the indictment reach far beyond Mr. Trump to some of his closest allies. They include Mark Meadows, who was Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and lawyer for Mr. Trump.
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• Also charged are several more lawyers who are accused of working to try to overturn the election: Sidney Powell, who once promised to “release the Kraken” in exposing purported election fraud; John C. Eastman, who helped promote the idea of using bogus Trump electors in states where Mr. Trump lost; and Kenneth Chesebro, who also played a central role in that effort.
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• The sprawling nature of the racketeering case is noted in the indictment, with prosecutors citing conduct in Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania that they say furthered the defendants’ efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power. Ms. Willis said late on Monday that she plans to try all 19 defendants together. 
• Giuliani is surrounded by people outdoors, some pushing phones or microphones toward him. He wears a dark suit and a blue and red striped tie.
• Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and lawyer for Mr. Trump, was charged as well in the indictment.Credit...Nicole Craine for The New York Times
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• The charges fall into several baskets.
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• The indictment bundles together several efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse the election results in Georgia. None of the 19 defendants is accused of taking part in all of those different schemes, but under the RICO law, prosecutors have to prove only that each one broke state laws as part of a continuing criminal enterprise with the same overarching goal.
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• Several of the individual counts stem from false claims of election fraud that Mr. Giuliani and two other Trump lawyers, Robert Cheeley and Ray Smith III, made at legislative hearings in December 2020.
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• Another batch of charges concerns a plan Mr. Trump’s supporters carried out to vote for a false slate of pro-Trump electors and send a forged document to Congress claiming those electors were legitimate.
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• A third raft of charges accuses several Trump allies of conspiring to steal voter data and tamper with voting equipment at the elections office in Coffee County, Ga. 
• Some of the defendants were charged only in connection with a bizarre scheme to harass and intimidate an election worker, Ruby Freeman, whom Mr. Trump and his allies had wrongfully accused of fraud. 
• A woman sits behind a name card reading “Ms. Moss.” Another woman stands behind her. There are rows of people and a camera in the background.
• Shaye Moss, center, being comforted by her mother, Ruby Freeman, during a hearing last year. The two women served as election workers in Georgia in 2020 and were wrongfully accused of fraud by Mr. Trump and his allies.Credit...Shuran Huang for The New York Times
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• The district attorney is giving Trump 10 days to turn himself in.
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• Ms. Willis said on Monday that she was giving Mr. Trump until noon on Aug. 25 to surrender in Fulton County, where he would be arraigned on the charges and enter a plea.
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• When Mr. Trump was indicted in New York, he was able to surrender and avoid some of the standard procedures for most people who are arrested, such as having his mug shot taken and being handcuffed.
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• Patrick Labat, the Fulton County sheriff, said this month that unless he was told otherwise, Mr. Trump would be booked in the same way as any other defendant. Still, the Secret Service could try to change the sheriff’s plans. 
• A man walks up the steps to a building with the name “Lewis R. Slaton Courthouse” displayed on it.
• Mr. Trump has until Aug. 25 to surrender in Fulton County, where he would be arraigned on the charges and enter a plea.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
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• Trump blasted the indictment and questioned the prosecutor’s motive.
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• Mr. Trump lashed out at Ms. Willis after the indictment, suggesting that she had charged him to further her own political standing and seizing on the fact that an improper copy of the indictment had reportedly been uploaded to a court website even before the grand jurors voted.
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• Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that a document that appeared to be a docket entry for an indictment against Mr. Trump had been posted, and then removed, from the Fulton County court’s website. A spokesman for the court called the document “fictitious,” and the court clerk, Ché Alexander, declined to discuss what had happened in detail.
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• Mr. Trump and his allies said it was a sign that the prosecution saw the grand jury’s vote, which took place later in the day, as a foregone conclusion.
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• Richard Fausset, Danny Hakim, and Anna Betts contributed reporting from Atlanta.
• Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national news. He is from upstate New York and previously reported in Baltimore, Albany, and Isla Vista, Calif. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
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• James C. McKinley Jr., a senior editor on the Live team, has held a range of jobs at The New York Times, starting on Metro with the police beat and then City Hall. Later, he was a bureau chief in Nairobi, Houston, and Albany, a correspondent in Mexico City, an investigative reporter in Sports, and a pop music reporter in Culture. He returned to Metro to cover the Manhattan courts and later became an assistant editor overseeing criminal justice reporters. More about James C. McKinley Jr.