Donald Trump's mugshot released after booking at Georgia jail on election charges

Donald Trump's mug shot was released on Thursday evening 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 the former US president's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

An unsmiling Trump — inmate no. P01135809, according to Fulton County Jail records - was captured glaring at the camera in the mug shot.

The image represented yet another extraordinary moment for Trump, who did not have to submit to a photograph when making appearances in his three other criminal cases.

Out on bail

Trump spent only about 20 minutes at the jail before heading back to his New Jersey golf club. Before boarding his private plane at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, he repeated his claim that the prosecution - along with the others he faces - is politically motivated.

He 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.

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

Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, even as he mounts another campaign for the White House next year.

Back on X after over 2 years

He wasted little time trying to turn the release of his mugshot to his advantage, posting it on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, as well as his own social media site, Truth Social. His campaign website featured the mug shot along with a message from Trump defending his actions and asking for donations.

The X post was Trump's first in more than two and a half years, after his account was banned following the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Elon Musk reinstated Trump's account last year soon after acquiring X.

Trump also put the photograph on his campaign website alongside an appeal for donations, claiming he had been "arrested despite having committed no crime."

Fake Trump mug shots had 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.

'We want to put it on T-shirt'

Outside the Fulton County Jail on Thursday, some Trump supporters questioned why a mug shot was needed. "The mug shot isn't necessary and is done to hurt him. But it won't," Malcolm Davis, 19, said.

Others, however, saw an opportunity.

• If Republicans narrow the field, we will beat Trump