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Marjorie Taylor Greene releases fake mugshot in solidarity as Trump turns himself in to Georgia officials

Georgia congresswoman claimed state’s Trump case is ‘persecution’

Josh Marcus
San Francisco
Friday 25 August 2023 01:41 BST
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Trump arrives in Georgia to surrender

Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a mocked-up mugshot on X on Thursday, a sign of solidarity with her ally Donald Trump, who turned himself in to Fulton County officials the same day to face state charges that he conspired to subvert the 2020 election.

“I stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis who is nothing more than a political hitman tasked with taking out Biden’s top political opponent,” Ms Greene, a Georgia Republican, wrote on X, referencing the local prosecutor leading the case against Mr Trump and 18 associates.

Ms Greene added the hashtag “MAGAMugshot” to the post.

The gesture from Ms Greene comes as Mr Trump turned himself in on Thursday and was booked on 13 charges in an Atlanta jail, including allegedly violating the state’s RICO organised crime statute through his well-document attempts to sway the 2020 election count in the state and beyond.

The post from the far-right Ms Greene likely won’t make it into the history books, but Mr Trump’s mugshot surely will.

Ahead of his arrest, Georgia officials insisted the former president would be booked and photographed like any other defendant in Fulton County.

“Unless someone tells me differently, we are following our normal practices and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you,” Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat said at a press conference this month.

Others named in the case, including former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have also submitted to official mugshots.

After his surrender, Mr Trump was released under a pre-existing bond agreement, charging $80,000 for the single charge he faces for violating Georgia’s RICO Act, plus an additional $10,000 for each of the 12 counts he faces for criminal conspiracy, criminal solicitation, filing false documents and false statements charges.

The former president, who is facing multiple other major criminal cases in New York, Florida, and Washington, DC, has dismissed the Georgia prosecution as a “witch hunt” and a “horrible thing for the country.” He has denied wrongdoing.

Georgia officials have proposed a 23 October 2023 trial date.

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