Trump Lovers and Dissenters Alike Await Mugshot With Bated Breath

The imminent release of President Trump’s mugshot following his arraignment at Atlanta on Thursday has both his most devoted fans and fiercest detractors excited. The first booking photo of an American president is likely to enter the pantheon of Americana alongside famous photos of presidents and celebrities alike. Mr. Trump is set to be arraigned in a courtroom at Fulton County, Georgia, on Thursday on 13 felony charges of racketeering, among other allegations. The former president will later be tried alongside 18 co-defendants who were involved in his efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election results in the state. Some of those co-defendants have already surrendered to the court and have had their mugshots released to the public. The state of Georgia customarily releases to the public mugshots, or booking photos, of criminal defendants. Different American states and jurisdictions have different policies regarding the taking and publicizing of mugshots. New York County, or Manhattan, where Mr. Trump was booked earlier this year on separate charges related to paying hush money to a porn star, does not customarily release mugshots to the public, and Mr. Trump was not photographed at his arraignment, though he was fingerprinted. The former president has also been indicted twice on federal charges in Florida and at the District of Columbia. Federal prosecutors almost never release booking photographs, and it is not clear if Mr. Trump was photographed when arraigned on those charges.As for the Georgia charges, Mr. Trump’s legal advisor, who helped devise the theory that the vice president could reject electoral college votes, John Eastman, was booked on Monday. Shortly after leaving the courtroom, Mr. Eastman’s mugshot, featuring a watermark of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, was released. Mr. Eastman is facing nine charges, including filing false documents, conspiracy to commit forgery, and violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act. After his booking, Mr. Eastman told reporters that he “absolutely” still believed that the Georgia results in the 2020 presidential election were fraudulent. “No question,” he added. Another co-defendant of Messrs. Trump and Eastman, David Shafer, was booked on Wednesday on eight counts of racketeering and forgery, among other alleged crimes. Mr. Shafer, who helped solicit signatures for a false slate of Electoral College votes, led the Peach State GOP during the 2020 elections.After his mugshot was released, Mr. Shafer took to Twitter — now known as X — to change his profile picture to his booking photo. “Good morning! #NewProfilePicture,” Mr. Shafer wrote above the mugshot of him grinning widely. Two attorneys who helped Mr. Trump in his attempt to overturn the Georgia results, Mayor Giuliani and Sidney Powell, were also booked and had their mugshots released Wednesday.The sheriff of Fulton County, Pat Labat, assured the press that Mr. Trump would also have his mugshot taken. His office will follow “normal procedures,” including the public release of the former president’s mugshot, he told members of the press.Mr. Trump’s prosecution at Atlanta will be the most transparent for the public, given that Georgia law allows for broadcasts of trial proceedings on television. The president’s campaign is likely to profit off the release of the mugshot. In April, shortly after Mr. Trump was first indicted on charges of campaign violations at Manhattan, his campaign released merchandise showing a false mugshot above the words “NOT GUILTY.” Once the real mugshot is released, it is likely the campaign will be able to capitalize on that as well. Even non-partisans are thrilled to be involved in the dissemination of the mugshot on merchandising, hopefully making a decent amount of money in the process. On Tuesday, Semafor reported that retailers on the online outlet Etsy are preparing for a flood of merchandise that can be sold to both the former president’s detractors and supporters. “We’re going to open up preorders the second that it comes out,” a seller and registered Democrat, Lauren Koontz, said. “The market’s going to be flooded. … Everybody’s going to be using it,” she said of the mugshot. One conservative Etsy shop owner, Paata Chikhladze, told Semafor that “the real” mugshot apparel “will be 100% one of the most popular T-shirts in a while.” Mr. Chikhladze said it is in “Trump’s best interest to have the real mug shot released, to make him more popular.”The president of the New York Young Republican Club, Gavin Wax, who is supporting Mr. Trump, tells the Sun the mugshot will “go down as the seminal political image of the 21st century.”“Just as the headshot of Che Guevara became an icon around which the American left has rallied for over half a century, the Trump mugshot will be indelibly etched in the American psyche,” Mr. Wax says. “It will also serve as an inflection point in our nation’s body politic and political history as an icon that defines the right because it tangibly marks a bridge we never thought we would cross.”

Trump Lovers and Dissenters Alike Await Mugshot With Bated Breath

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