“I went through an experience I never thought I’d have to go through,” the former president said.
For the first time in history, a former president was fingerprinted and photographed like any other suspect under arrest.
Donald Trump’s mug shot has been making headlines and spread on social media.
“He could have smiled. He could have looked benign. Instead, he looks like a thug,” former national security adviser John Bolton said. The New York Times says Trump looks “as if he’s about to head-butt the camera.”
The former president orchestrated his surrender as a primetime television spectacle. Trump went from the Atlanta airport to the Fulton County Jail in a large motorcade consisting of 10 SUVs, three vans, two ambulances and 18 motorcycle cops.
Trump’s team of lawyers and secret service agents accompanied him into the jail, which has been described as filthy and infested with bugs.
“You leave and feel the need to shower because the air is thick in there,” Atlanta lawyer Rachel Kaufman tells Inside Edition. “There’s no ventilation. The walls are just kind of dirty and old and things are crumbling in there.”
Trump says he found the booking process unsettling.
“I went through an experience I never thought I’d have to go through,” Trump said. “A terrible experience.”
Trump’s official booking is sparking intense reaction as he “self reported” his height at 6’3” and his weight at 215 pounds, and many people are not buying it.
“Come on now, does anybody believe he weighs 215,” Gayle King said on CBS Mornings. “If he weighs 215 I weigh 102.”
The last time Trump reported his weight followed a physical at the White House in 2018, where he said he weighed in at 239 pounds. When he was booked in New York five months ago, he said he was 6’2”.
Trump is now back at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He was in and out of the jail in Atlanta in 21 minutes and used a bail bondsman to secure his $200,000 bail. Similar to Rudy Giuliani, who was seen entering the offices of A 2nd Chance Bail Bonds right after he was booked.
Inside Edition spoke to A 2nd Chance Bail Bonds director of operations, Jesse Fellabaum. He says that people getting booked at a jail are allowed to self-report how much they weigh and how tall they are.
“There is an honor system involved where you are asked to give that information. Often they will pull that off of your ID, if you do have an ID to present. But it is pretty rare that you’re asked to stand against the wall and measured or step on a scale,” Fellabaum says.
All 19 defendants in the 2020 Georgia presidential election conspiracy case had until noon Friday to turn themselves in. They have all done so.
