Will he escape the “mugshot”? Donald Trump must make a flash visit to a Georgia prison on Thursday to make himself available to the authorities of this state in the south-east of the country, because of his indictment for his actions during the 2020 presidential election.

The event promises to be one of those historical sequences that keep the country in suspense: after having escaped it during his three previous criminal indictments, this time he may not cut the infamous ritual of the photo of identification, or “mugshot”, a first for a former US president.

His ex-lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, one of 19 defendants being prosecuted for their alleged attempts to reverse the state’s 2020 election result, said Wednesday he had spoken to him to wish him well.

“What they are doing to him is an attack on the American Constitution”, protested Mr. Giuliani when he left Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, the state capital, where he was jailed. was made prisoner before being released on bail.

The Republican favorite’s stint to retake the White House in 2024 in an overcrowded and notoriously unsanitary prison facility known as “Rice Street Jail” under the watchful eye of media around the world who have been camped out for days under large tents, however should be brief.

Unless unforeseen, Donald Trump will come out free on bail, set at 200,000 dollars in his case, like the nine defendants who have already surrendered. All those who preceded him, for some in the middle of the night, saw their passage immortalized and their “mugshot” circulating in a loop on television and on social networks. The rules in force also provide for the taking of fingerprints.

Both prison entrances were closed to traffic on Thursday morning. At one of the entrances, officers in bulletproof vests were waiting in a pick-up.

Absent from the Republican debate

Prior to his arrival, Mr. Trump changed lawyers on Thursday to represent him in Georgia. The replacement of Drew Findling by Steve Sadow, a tenor of the Atlanta bar, both accustomed to defending celebrities, has not been explained, but the second has in the past disputed that the county prosecutor of Fulton, Fani Willis, charged the 19 defendants under the Organized Crime Act, which carries sentences of five to 20 years in prison.

On August 14, a grand jury constituted by the prosecutor charged them with “unlawful attempts to obtain the reversal of the result of the 2020 election”, won in this key state by the current Democratic President, Joe Biden. They have until Friday at noon to present themselves to the authorities. They are expected to be back in court the week of September 5, presumably to announce whether or not they plead guilty.

Donald Trump is the subject of four criminal charges, including two at the federal level, in Washington and Florida (southeast), one in New York State and one in Georgia. The legal clouds may be gathering, but each twist brings him millions of dollars in donations, paid by supporters convinced that he is the victim of a “witch hunt” engineered by the Biden administration to remove him from the presidential.

His time in prison comes after the first Republican primary debate, held Wednesday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (north), an event that the real estate magnate snubbed. Since he prances at the top of the polls, he deemed it unnecessary to participate. Instead, he gave an interview to Tucker Carlson, former star host of Fox News, which was broadcast on X (ex-Twitter)… at the same time as the debate.

The eight candidates present in Milwaukee – seven men including the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, and a woman, the former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley – therefore had tense exchanges, sometimes about him, particularly with regard to concerns their support for him if he were convicted.