For former President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and their 17 other co-defendants, the threat of jail time is getting very real for those charged, arrested and booked in the Georgia election fraud case.

After trying desperately to avoid arrest by having his case transferred to federal court, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows surrendered Thursday afternoon. He is now in the same boat as his 18 fellow defendants in the Georgia case, even as Meadows is widely believed to be cooperating − to some degree − with Special Counsel Jack Smith and his federal prosecutors, who brought their own conspiracy case against Trump in Washington.

And one of the Georgia state false electors has blamed Trump, saying his group was only following the orders of the commander-in-chief.

In short, now that they’ve seen the inside of the notoriously dangerous Fulton County jail and had their fingerprints and mug shots taken, the alleged co-conspirators are mulling their options in terms of how to fight the case as it moves to court.

And by all appearances, it’s going to get complicated, contentious and potentially ugly, as the Fulton County 19 weigh how much they want to fight for their own interests at the expense of everyone else.

“This case has all the indicators of a classic mob case,” says former federal prosecutor and Justice Department official Gene Rossi, who has done a lot of these cases.

“When prosecutors at the federal and state level charge RICO, the multiple defendants initially are one team. But at some point in the process, each defendant realizes I have to be out for myself, I have to think about me,” Rossi told USA TODAY. “And at some point, I don’t know how many defendants will decide, ‘Let’s call the prosecutors. Let’s offer our cooperation and let the chips fall where they may, and we will take our punches and hopefully get a lighter sentence.’ ”

“That decision may not happen soon, but it will happen,” Rossi adds. “And that decision will be made quickest by the people who are at the lower end of the totem pole. So, 15 through 19 will likely cooperate a lot faster than somebody in the top seven.”

Here’s a status report on what’s next for the 19 defendants in the Fulton County case:

Defendant #1 – Trump still loving the attention

Trump himself appears to be enjoying the legal attention, especially as his poll numbers – and legal and campaign war chests get bigger with each indictment.

Initially, after the 41-count Georgia indictment was unsealed last week, the former president railed against the state charges – and Willis specifically − on social media and announced plans to hold a “news conference” to prove how the charges were baseless. He canceled that event but has been milking the publicity for all it’s worth, including his booking into Fulton County jail.

“I have four of them now if you look. I mean, this is not even possible,” Trump said on Fox Business. “Four, over the next, last couple of months. And frankly, it discredits everything. And they’re all very similar in the sense that they’re, there’s no basis for them.”

Defendants #2 through #7 – the alleged inner circle

At least three of the defendants are trying to move their cases to federal court; Meadows, former senior Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and David Shafer, the former Georgia Republican Party chairman.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones is set to hold a hearing Monday on Meadows’ request, but he refused to block the arrest of Meadows and Clark, who is also charged with trying to help Trump illegally overturn the election.

At the federal level, Meadows has also asked to dismiss the case, for the same reason, which is that any actions he took to help Trump were done in his official capacity as White House chief of staff.

Willis called the urgency of request “meritless” and “futile.”

Several of Trump’s lawyers − Giuliani, Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis surrendered Wednesday.

Ellis is one of several of Trump’s lawyers who have complained that Trump isn’t paying their legal bills, despite his vast and high-profile fundraising effort to mount an aggressive legal defense. She has turned to social media to ask why the former president and his donors aren’t doing more to help.

And Trump campaign aide Michael Roman is charged in connection with allegedly instructing an unnamed co-conspirator to coordinate with Trump campaign officials to contact state legislators in Georgia and other battleground states on behalf of Trump and encourage them to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.

The Georgia defendants

Shafer, one of the alternate presidential electors who supported Trump despite Biden winning the state, also asked to move his case to federal court. He faces eight charges, including impersonating a public official, forgery and making false statements.

Shafer has argued that serving as a Republican presidential elector chosen in March 2020, he was a federal official acting in his official capacity. He seeks to present several federal defenses to his actions, including official immunity, supremacy clause immunity and the First Amendment.

But Shafer has also said attorneys for Trump, his campaign and the local GOP were responsible for urging him to assemble a slate of false presidential electors that are now at the heart of a sprawling racketeering case.

“Mr. Shafer and the other Republican Electors in the 2020 election acted at the direction of the incumbent President and other federal officials,” Shafer’s attorney wrote in a petition seeking to move the Fulton County case to federal court.

Other local defendants include Georgia lawyers Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley and Shawn Still, one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

The Georgia list also includes pastor Stephen Cliffgard Lee, publicist Trevian Kutti and Harrison William Prescott Floyd, who allegedly tried to pressure local election workers to confess to election fraud.

And three others, Cathleen Latham, Scott Hall and Misty Hampton were charged, along with Powell, with election interference for allegedly unlawfully tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines in Coffee County, Georgia., on Jan. 7, 2021. They were also charged with unlawful possession of ballots, computer theft, computer trespass and computer invasion of privacy. And they were charged with conspiracy to defraud the state by stealing voter data.

For Donald Trump, racking up dozens of felony charges comes with one silver lining: getting a legendary mug shot. Trump surrogates began hyping the photo immediately after his first indictment in April 2023, with his daughter-in-law Lara predicting it would “go down in history as the most famous mug shot ever to exist in America.” But Trump was denied his close-up; he was booked with no photo in his first three arraignments, and his campaign resorted to selling merch emblazoned with a fake mug shot.

However, the fourth time was the charm. Trump was photographed inside Atlanta’s main jail on Thursday evening, just like his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case.

After arriving in Georgia on his private jet, Trump was whisked by police motorcade to the Fulton County Jail where he surrendered and was briefly taken into custody as inmate No. P01135809. Officials entered his mug shot, fingerprints, and a physical description into the jail’s books, listing Trump at 6 feet and 3 inches tall and 215 pounds — 24 pounds less than the weight a White House doctor reported in 2018, according to the New York Times, which said the form was filled out by aides. Twenty minutes later, he was released on a $200,000 bond, 10 percent of it covered by a local bonding company.

Around 8:40 p.m., the sheriff’s office released his mug shot, showing Trump glowering in his signature blue suit and red tie. (He decided not to smile in the photo because, according to CNN’s sources, he wanted to look “defiant.”) He called the whole episode a “travesty of justice” as he boarded his plane back to New Jersey, then posted the infamous photo both on Truth Social and X — the first time he’d used the platform formerly known as Twitter since he was banned following the Capitol riot — under the caption “ELECTION INTERFERENCE / NEVER SURRENDER!” His campaign immediately began selling T-shirts.

Here’s a gallery of all the mug shots in the Georgia case, which we’ll update as more photos come in:

Charges: Trump is facing 13 counts: one count of racketeering; three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer; two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree; two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings; two counts of false statements and writings; one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents; one count of filing false documents and conspiracy to commit to impersonating a public officer.

Bond: $200,000

Charges: Giuliani has been charged with 13 counts: one count of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, three counts of false statements and writings, three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.

Bond: $150,000

Charges: Meadows is facing two counts: one count of racketeering, one count of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.

Bond: $100,000

Charges: Powell was charged with seven counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit computer theft, one count of conspiracy to commit computer trespass, one count of conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, one count of conspiracy to defraud the state.

Bond: $100,000

Charges: Ellis is facing two counts: one count of racketeering and one count of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer.

Bond: $100,000

Charges: Eastman is facing nine counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery, one count of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, one count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, and one count of filing false documents.

Bond: $100,000

Charges: Chesebro is facing seven counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree; two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings; one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents; one count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer.

Bond: $100,000

Charges: Hall is facing seven counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit computer theft, one count of conspiracy to commit computer trespass, one count of conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the state.

Bond: $10,000

Charges: Shafer is charged with eight counts: one count of racketeering, three counts of false statements and writings, two counts of forgery in the first degree, one count of impersonating a public officer, and one count of attempting to commit filing false documents.

Bond: $75,000

Charges: Smith is facing 12 counts: one count of racketeering, three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, two counts of false statements and writings, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, one count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

Bond: $50,000

Charges: Latham is facing 11 counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, one count of impersonating a public officer, one count of forgery in the first degree, one count of false statements and writings, one count of criminal attempt to commit filing false documents, one count of conspiracy to commit computer theft, one count of conspiracy to commit computer trespass, one count of conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, one count of conspiracy to defraud the state.

Bond: $75,000

Charges: Floyd was charged with three counts: one count of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings and one count of influencing witnesses.

Bond: Floyd’s bond has not been set yet. He was charged earlier this year with attacking an FBI agent working on the Justice Department’s investigation of Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election.

Charges: Clark has been charged with two counts: one count of racketeering, one count of criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings.

Bond: $100,000

Charges: Cheeley has been charged with 10 counts: One count of violation of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, one count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, one count of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, one count of false statements and writings, and one count of perjury.

Bond: $50,000

Charges: Roman is facing seven counts: One count of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, one count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

Bond: $10,000

Charges: Still was charged with seven counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of forgery in the first degree,  two counts of false statements and writings,  one count of impersonating a public officer, one count criminal attempt to commit filing false documents.

Bond: $10,000

Charges: Lee is facing five counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of criminal attempt to commit influencing witnesses, one count of conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings, one count of influencing witnesses.

Bond: $75,000

Charges: Kutti is facing three counts: one count of racketeering, one count of conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings and one count of influencing witnesses.

Bond: $75,000

Charges: Hampton was charged with seven counts: one count of racketeering, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit computer theft, one count of conspiracy to commit computer trespass, one count of conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, one count of conspiracy to defraud the state.

Bond: $10,000

Source: The New York Times, CNN, US Today, New York-Intelligencer, Rollingstone-US, Twitter, Trust Social, Fox5 Atlanta
Photo’s & Doc’s: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, US Courts