FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The U.S. Secret Service is working directly with local law enforcement to protect former President Donald Trump when he surrenders to the Fulton County Jail.
Former President Trump and 18 others were indicted this week for allegedly interfering in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. As a result, all of them will have to surrender at the Fulton County Jail, where they will be fingerprinted and have a mugshot taken.
Retired Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Ray Moore told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that he knows the protocols from his time protecting presidents, but he has also spoken to his personal friend, Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat.
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“A lot of the things that they will do will be the same. How they arrive at the jail will be the same as going to a hotel, it’s just a jail this time because they will put in place protective protocols to keep former President Trump safe and secure,” Moore explained.
Moore also says he believes that Sheriff Labat has put a proximity protocol in place to make sure no other inmates will be anywhere close to the former president.
He says the Secret Service has never faced a challenge like the one presented before them in Fulton County.
Moore, who knows both Labat and the current Secret Service Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta field office Steve Baisel well, says the two have been in constant communication.
“They’ve been talking. They’re putting together a very good security plan,” he said.
Winne has learned that bond for Trump and the other defendants will likely be decided before they surrender, so there is no need for an immediate bond hearing or for them to be held overnight.
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Earlier this week, District Attorney Fani Willis filed a pretrial scheduling motion that would have arraignments begin the week of September 5.
Moore says that when the former president arrives at the Fulton County Courthouse for his arraignment, Secret Service will again work with local law enforcement to protect him.
“One of the jokes presidents talk about all the time is they don’t remember ever going in through a front door. They remember going through the kitchen or arriving at where the dumpsters are, so I’m sure that they will develop a security protocol where former President Trump will arrive in a secure area, be taken up a secure elevator and brought into the courthouse securely,” Moore described.
A statement from the former president’s campaign referred to the charges as a “bogus indictment” and a “legal double-standard set against President Trump.”
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