As former President Donald Trump’s Tuesday arraignment approaches, experts have told MarketWatch that an unprecedented mugshot – if it becomes public – could become the most influential photograph of the 21st century.
“It could become the cultural icon of our time,” Craig Agranoff, a Florida-based marketing executive, reportedly told the financial news publication.
“The [pro-Trump] people who will be disgusted by it will use it for mobilization, and the people who are against Trump will use it to mock him,” Agranoff continued.
“It will be in every mainstream newspaper in the country and probably around the world,” another expert said.
However, MarketWatch also added that there is a chance the public never sees a Trump mug shot, whether one is taken or not.
Given the uniqueness of the situation, “there is no norm for how the process will proceed,” says Guy Fronstin, a prominent Florida-based criminal-defense attorney who once represented the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, with whom Trump posed decades ago for much-discussed photos.
Here’s yet another wrinkle: There’s a possibility we may never see a Trump mug shot, even if one is taken, as presumed. New York has established a ban on such images being routinely released, passed as part of the 2020 state budget. Such images, though, can still be made available at law-enforcement discretion.
“I think there’s leeway” for a mug shot to be released, says Diane Kennedy, president of the New York News Publishers Association, which represents media organizations throughout the state.
MarketWatch reached out to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office for comment about the potential release of a Trump mug shot but didn’t receive a response.
Trump’s 2024 campaign reportedly reeled in millions from fundraising efforts in the hours after his grand jury indictment was announced last week.
Numerous Democrats, including California Rep. Adam Schiff, have also used Trump’s persecution as a rallying call for supporters in fundraising emails.
Adam Schiff called out by MSNBC host for fundraising off Trump indictment https://t.co/xrvuhPax39
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 1, 2023