Donald Trump slams ‘travesty of justice’ following Georgia arrest

Donald Trump, the former US president who surrendered on Thursday in Georgia on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election called a“travesty of justice” following his arrest. He also slammed the criminal prosecutions against him as “election interference”.

"What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong," he told reporters as he prepared to fly out of Atlanta after being booked and photographed at the Fulton County Jail.

"What they're doing is election interference," he said.

Trump did not specify who he was accusing of interference, but he has routinely denounced President Joe Biden and other Democrats for allegedly obstructing his reelection campaign.

The brisk 20-minute booking yielded a historic first: a mug shot of a former American president.

Trump was released on $200,000 bond and headed back to the airport for his return flight home to New Jersey.

Trump’s surrender to law enforcement authorities has become by now a familiar election-season routine in a way that belies the unprecedented spectacle of a former president being booked, in four different cities, on felony criminal charges.

But his visit to Atlanta was notably different from the three past surrenders, unfolding at night and requiring him to visit a problem-plagued jail — rather than a courthouse — and not in a liberal bastion like New York or Washington but rather in the heart of a battleground state vital to the 2024 presidential election. And unlike in other cities that did not require him to pose for a mug shot, a booking photo of him was taken, according to a person familiar with the proceedings.

Trump landed in Atlanta shortly after 7pm and was driven, through the city's rush-hour traffic, to jail for the booking process. Wearing his signature white shirt and red tie, he offered a wave and thumbs up as he descended the steps of his private plane.

He provided officials as is customary with his physical measurements: 6 foot 3 inches. 215 pounds. Strawberry or blond hair.

The Fulton County prosecution is the fourth criminal case against Trump since March, when he became the first former president in US history to be indicted. Since then, he's faced federal charges in Florida and Washington, and this month he was indicted in Atlanta with 18 others — including his ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — under a racketeering statute normally associated with gang members and organised crime.

Giuliani surrendered on Wednesday and posed for a mug shot. Meadows, who had sought to avoid having to turn himself in while he seeks to move the case to federal court, turned himself in Thursday. Bond was set at $100,000.

(With inputs from AFP, AP)

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