Trump mugshot - Twitter
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Donald Trump’s mugshot is a national disgrace.
As many media outlets have reported, he’s the first former president to have had a mug shot taken. This was nothing more than an attempt at embarrassing Trump. Surely the mug shot serves no other purpose. Trump is photographed every time he is in public. He’s one of the most recognized people in the world. He is not a flight risk. He says publicly that he looks forward to defending himself at trial.
People who wanted a mug shot taken are the same crowd that dreams of a Trump perp walk. They imagine him being taken out of a squad car and led into the courthouse in handcuffs. Instead, his motorcade gets a police escort from the airport.
Trump and his legal team did make a mistake, which was pointed out by talk show host Dan Bongino. Trump should have refused to pay bail. Instead, his lawyers agreed to a predetermined amount, $200,000, to expedite the booking process.
Mahatma Ghandi was arrested repeatedly by the British colonial government for organizing marches in India. He always refused to post bond, and asked his wealthy supporters not to pay it for him. While he was held in jail, his fellow demonstrators would surround the courthouse and jail and would block roads, making it impossible for the British to control some remote outpost. Gandhi would be released in a day or two while awaiting trial. (He was convicted of sedition and served a two-year jail term, a fate Donald Trump hopes to avoid.)
But what if Donald Trump refused to pay bail? That would turn the entire proceedings on its ear. The Fulton County Jail isn’t possibly set up for a celebrity political prisoner like Trump. How would he be kept safe? The Secret Service is tasked with guarding ex-presidents. How would he be protected from other inmates? The presence of a security detail and prison guards would be an operational nightmare. I suspect a judge would have released him on his own recognizance.
We don’t have political prisoners in the United States. Only now we do. Non-violent protestors from January 6th are in solitary. And there’s the curious case of an ex-president who is the preferred candidate of a large swath of voters. The logistics of Donald Trump’s case should be vexing. We’ve never been dragged down this road before.
Chris Conley
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