FORMER US PRESIDENT Donald Trump and the 18 people indicted along with him in Georgia on charges they participated in an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election have turned themselves in to a jail in Atlanta before the deadline.

All but one of those charged had agreed to a bond amount and conditions with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ahead of time and they were free to go after booking. 

After Trump was booked yesterday evening – scowling at the camera for the first ever mug shot of a former president – seven co-defendants who had not yet surrendered did so this morning.

Harrison William Prescott Floyd, who is accused of harassing a Fulton County election worker, did not negotiate a bond ahead of time and remained in the jail after turning himself in yesterday.

Federal court records from Maryland show Floyd, identified as a former US marine who is active with the group Black Voices for Trump, was also arrested three months ago on a federal warrant that accuses him of aggressively confronting two FBI agents sent to serve him with a grand jury subpoena.

Next, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is expected to set arraignments for each of the defendants in the coming weeks. That is when they would appear in court for the first time and enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, though it is not uncommon for defendants in Georgia to waive arraignment.

The case filed under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act is sprawling, and the logistics of bringing it to trial are likely to be complicated. Legal manoeuvring by several of those charged has already begun.

Three of them – former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former US Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark and former Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer – are trying to move their cases to federal court.

A judge is to hear arguments on Meadows’ request on Monday and on Clark’s on 18 September. There has been speculation that Trump will also try to move to federal court.

One defendant, lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who prosecutors say worked on the co-ordination and execution of a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that Trump won and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors, has filed a demand for a speedy trial.

That requires his trial start by the end of the next court term, in this case by early November. The day after he filed that request, Willis – who has said she wants to try all 19 defendants together – proposed starting the trial for everyone on 23 October.

Trump’s lawyer Steve Sadow has filed an objection to the proposed October trial date and a March date that Ms Willis had previously suggested. He asked that Trump’s case be separated from Chesebro and any other codefendant who files a speedy trial demand.