Fears for Donald Trump's Life Inside 'Dangerous' Fulton County Jail

Some supporters of former President Donald Trump fear for his life after news that he and others indicted by a Georgia grand jury this week will be booked at an Atlanta jail that is currently under federal investigation.

Trump was indicted for the fourth time since leaving office this week. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis used Georgia's racketeering law to charge Trump and 18 of his allies, alleging a wide-ranging conspiracy to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss and keep him in power. Trump has denied wrongdoing and long decried Willis' lengthy investigation as political persecution.

Willis has given the defendants until noon on August 25 to surrender. The Fulton County Sheriff's Office has said that all 19 defendants are expected to be booked at the Fulton County Jail.

"At this point, based on guidance received from the district attorney's office and presiding judge, it is expected that all 19 defendants named in the indictment will be booked at the Rice Street Jail," Fulton County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Natalie Ammons said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to Fulton County Jail by an alternative name.

"Keep in mind, defendants can turn themselves in at any time. The jail is open 24/7. Also, due to the unprecedented nature of this case, some circumstances may change with little or no warning," she said.

Trump supporters have claimed his life would be at risk if he is arrested at the Atlanta facility.

"The Biden DOJ is currently investigating the Fulton County Jail for safety violations," Charles Downs wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "Despite this, the Democrats are going to force Donald Trump to be arrested at this dangerous facility. The deranged globalists are intentionally putting a president's life in danger."

Others also called attention to the conditions at the jail and the number of people who have died there.

"I wouldn't wish the conditions in the Fulton County jail on my worst enemy," Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, wrote in a post on the platform.

"If you think that making jokes about jail in Atlanta is all well and good because Donald Trump is the butt of them, you may wish to stop and inform yourself of the inhumane ways people have died there," he wrote.

But some were not sympathetic.

"Do the crime in Fulton County, do the time in the Fulton County Jail. Do the crime in DC, go to trial in DC," wrote author Teresa Hill.

A person who said they had worked at the jail said it was "stinky, dirty & dangerous."

"I worked at Fulton County Jail where I guess Trump will go if denied bail (at least for a short time). It was a hot mess," they wrote in a post on X.

In July, the Justice Department's civil rights division announced an investigation into the jail, citing filthy conditions and the death of Lashawn Thompson, whose body was found covered in insects last year.

In a news release, the department also said there were credible allegations that "an incarcerated person died covered in insects and filth, that the Fulton County Jail is structurally unsafe, that prevalent violence has resulted in serious injuries and homicides, and that officers are being prosecuted for using excessive force."

Investigators will look at living conditions, access to medical and mental health care, use of excessive force by staff and protection of those incarcerated from violence, the release said.

Thompson died in a bedbug-infested cell in the jail's psychiatric wing in September 2022, three months after he was booked into the jail on a misdemeanor battery charge.

But the circumstances of his death came to public attention earlier this year after a lawyer representing his family released photos of his face and body covered in insects.

"If you see the photos of the cell that this man was in, you're gonna be outraged," attorney Michael B. Harper told Newsweek. "I mean, it was a filthy, deplorable cell that was really inhumane. The pictures speak for themselves."

Fulton County commissioners voted to approve a $4 million settlement with Thompson's family earlier this month, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Thompson was one of 15 people to die in the jail last year, Atlanta magazine reported. Several more have died this year, including two in the past month.

According to the magazine, there were 11 fires, 534 fights, 114 stabbings, and at least two murders in the jail last year alone.

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat welcomed the DOJ investigation and said the sheriff's office was "prepared to cooperate fully."

"The humanitarian crisis at the Fulton County Rice Street Jail is not new," he said in a statement last month. "I have publicly, privately, and repeatedly raised concerns about the dangerous overcrowding, dilapidated infrastructure and critical staffing shortages at the jail."

He added that he hoped the DOJ's investigation would find the jail is "not viable" and a new facility is needed.

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office and a Trump spokesperson have been contacted for comment via email.