Trump's surrender in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case

Former President Donald Trump and his senior advisers briefly met with his new lawyer, Steven Sadow, on his private plane upon landing in Atlanta on Thursday. 

Trump is traveling with his aides Susie Wiles, Jason Miller and Steven Cheung, among others. 

Trump aide Walt Nauta, his co-defendant in the special counsel’s classified document case, is also traveling with the president.

Trump exited his plane shortly after 7 p.m. ET and told reporters, “Thank you very much” from a distance before getting into his motorcade. 

The president and his motorcade are currently en route to Fulton County jail.

Former President Donald Trump landed at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and is en route to the Fulton County jail to surrender and be booked on more than a dozen charges stemming from his efforts to reverse Georgia’s 2020 election results.

The former president, wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, gave a thumb’s up to reporters, aides and others gathered on the tarmac after he exited his private plane.

It is the fourth time this year the former president has faced criminal charges.

How the surrender is expected to unfold: Like several of his 18 co-defendants who have already surrendered at the jail, Trump’s processing through the facility will likely be completed quickly because the former president and his lawyers negotiated his consent bond agreement ahead of Thursday.

Trump agreed to a $200,000 bond and other release conditions, including not using social media to target the co-defendants or witnesses in the case.

Law enforcement is amping up security outside of the Fulton County jail, where former President Donald Trump is expected to surrender tonight.

More than 10 agencies from the Metro Atlanta area are at the scene, according to CNN's Ryan Young. Canine units have been deployed to make sure there are no explosives and drones could be seen flying in the air, he reported.

One police source told Young that officers are comparing Trump's surrender to the security level seen at the Super Bowl.

Atlanta has hosted three Super Bowls, the most recent in 2019.

In typical cases in Fulton County, police make an arrest, the person arrested is booked into jail and that person must appear before a magistrate judge within 72 hours. But the process for defendants who are indicted and face grand jury arrest warrants – as is the case with Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants – works differently.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gave the 19 defendants until noon ET on August 25 to surrender voluntarily. While the grand jury issued arrest warrants, those warrants do not become active until the district attorney enters them into the Georgia Crime Information Center, which is the statewide crime database. This is what we expect to happen if someone fails to voluntarily surrender by the deadline. 

In the meantime, the attorneys for defendants in the Trump case are expected to negotiate with the district attorney’s office to work out the terms of release and bond for their clients – this is known as a consent bond.

According to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, all defendants in this case are expected to be booked at the Rice Street Jail. Once a defendant enters the jail and is taken into custody, they are technically “under arrest.” They are not expected to be handcuffed. 

Once defendants are taken into custody, they are expected to be fingerprinted and have their mugshot taken, according to Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat.

Normally, those taken into custody are thoroughly searched by a jail deputy. In the past, though, some high-profiled defendants who have voluntarily surrendered were not subjected to that thorough body search.

Defendants typically undergo a medical screening and receive a pre-trial consultation to determine whether they can sign out on their own recognizance. It’s unclear if that will happen with Trump and his co-defendants.

For a typical defendant, the booking process can take hours, much of which is spent waiting around for their turn to be booked.

But attorneys told CNN the process could move more swiftly for VIP defendants in the Trump case. They could theoretically be processed within 15 minutes if officials at the jail want to swiftly move them in and get them out.

If the defendants have a bond agreement in place, they will be processed and then released. If defendants do not have a bond agreement in place, they will be kept in custody.

Read more about surrenders at the Fulton County jail.

Former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants are accused of breaking a variety of criminal laws in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case, but one crime ties all their alleged misconduct together: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The state law — which is commonly referred to as RICO — is similar to the federal version of the statute that targets so-called criminal enterprises. Georgia’s law allows prosecutors to pull an array of conduct into their indictments, including activities that took place outside of the state of Georgia but may have been part of a broad conspiracy.

Those convicted of racketeering charges also face steeper penalties, a point of leverage for prosecutors if they are hoping to flip potential co-conspirators or encourage defendants to take plea deals.

“Federal RICO is a very big deal. It’s difficult to prove, and it’s used pretty sparingly. Georgia RICO is a different animal. It’s easier to prove,” said Kenneth White, a defense attorney familiar with the federal law. “The point is, it’s used very aggressively there.”

For Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the law has been her calling card. The Atlanta-area prosecutor has used it in a number of high-profile cases she’s previously brought in Georgia against school officials, gangs and musicians, including the rapper Young Thug.

The historic 41-count indictment unsealed last week accuses Trump and the other defendants of being part of a broad conspiracy to attempt to overturn the 2020 election result in the Peach State.

Prosecutors say the criminal actions the charge is built around include: making false statements, filing false documents and forgeries, impersonating officials, computer breaches and attempts to influence witnesses.

Several of the acts alleged to have made up the racketeering conspiracy involved states other than Georgia.

Former President Donald Trump covered the cost of his $200,000 bond by putting 10% toward it and working with a local Atlanta bonding company Foster Bail Bonds LLC, sources told CNN.

Reached by phone Thursday, Foster Bail Bonds confirmed it is executing the former president’s bond that his attorneys previously negotiated.

Other defendants — most notably former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani — stopped by a professional bail bond company after being released from jail. And earlier Thursday, lawyers for former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were spotted at a bail bond company near the Fulton County jail.

But Trump is not expected to appear at a bail bonds shop before heading back to Bedminster, according to a person familiar with the plans. 

Fulton County marks the first case where Trump has been required to pay a cash bail. His odds of being released without a cash bail were slim in Georgia. Trump was already facing three other felony indictments when he was charged here.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also has a track record of demanding cash bail in racketeering cases involving non-violent offenses, as she did in the case involving Atlanta public school educators. 

Putting 10% toward the bond was one of the options available to Trump, per the agreement his attorneys reached with the Fulton County district attorney’s office.

Donald Trump's newly-hired lawyer, Steven Sadow, will accompany him to the Fulton County jail on Thursday, CNN has learned. 

Sadow is currently waiting at the airport in Atlanta and will ride in the former president's motorcade to the jail. 

Trump replaced his top Georgia lawyer Drew Findling with Sadow ahead of his surrender today, CNN previously reported. 

Sadow is an Atlanta-based attorney whose website profile describes him as a “special counsel for white collar and high-profile defense.”

Donald Trump's plane has departed Newark Airport in New Jersey en route to Atlanta, where the former president will surrender and be booked on more than a dozen charges stemming from his efforts to reverse Georgia’s 2020 election results.

The flight is estimated to be roughly two hours. 

It is the fourth time this year the former president has faced criminal charges.

Like several of his 18 co-defendants who have already surrendered at the jail, Trump’s processing through the facility will likely be completed quickly because the former president and his lawyers negotiated his consent bond agreement ahead of Thursday.

Trump agreed to a $200,000 bond and other release conditions, including not using social media to target the co-defendants and witnesses in the case.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the sprawling racketeering case last week following a yearslong investigation, has asked for Trump and the other 18 defendants to be arraigned next month. Defendants have until noon on Friday to surrender.

If former President Donald Trump were facing the booking process that newly charged criminal defendants in Fulton County typically experience, he might find himself lingering for hours at the jail waiting for his fingerprints and mug shot to be taken.

Even by the standards of local jails, the Fulton County jail on Rice Street has a reputation for troubled conditions for inmates. Last month, the US Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into living conditions, access to health care, violence against detainees and possible discrimination against those with psychiatric disabilities.

But the treatment that defendants receive when being booked and processed on criminal charges in Fulton County varies drastically, case by case. The system gives discretion to prosecutors, the magistrate judges who often preside over the first court appearances and the superior court judges who have been assigned the underlying case.

Trump is expected to turn himself to the jail this afternoon to be booked on more than a dozen charges stemming from his efforts to reverse Georgia’s 2020 election results.

While officials have vowed to treat Trump and his associates as they would any defendant, that is likely impossible due to the security precautions required for a former president and the high-profile nature of some of his co-defendants.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis gave Trump and his co-defendants in the case, which alleges they engaged in a racketeering scheme and other crimes in their efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, until Friday at noon ET to turn themselves in voluntarily. The window for self-surrender has given the defendants time for planning and for potential outreach to prosecutors to discuss how the process will work.

Custody at Fulton County jail: The Justice Department last month launched a civil rights investigation into the jail which has been the site of multiple deaths on the premises.

US Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke pointed to the death last year of LaShawn Thompson, whose family has blamed unsanitary conditions, including a bed bug and lice infestation, as contributing to his death.

Three jail officials stepped down earlier this year, after a preliminary investigation into Thompson’s death.

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat has sought more than $2 billion in county funding to build a new jail and has acknowledged the difficulties in meeting safety and health standards in the current facility, which, from the day that it opened, was not large enough to accommodate the population that comes through it.