For the first time in history, a former United States President has been indicted on criminal charges. Donald J Trump has an arrest warrant issued for his name y the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Regardless of your political opinion, this is a remarkable event in the course of US history. Some fell that this is a politically motivated undertaking while others feel that this is only the first of many possible indictments the former president may face. No matter your view we can all agree that this will be uncharted territory that we are entering in the criminal justice system. How does one process and book a person who is under Federal Secret Service Protection?
It is expected that Donald Trump will turn himself in to the Manhattan DA’s office on April 4th, 2023 to face up to 30 or more felony charges related to improperly documenting business expenses. At the time of this blog post, the indictment against Donald Trump is sealed. therefore any commentary on the legality of actions or criminal exposure Trump may face is premature. New York is the former hometown of Donald Trump and where he resided when these alleged acts occurred. It is also known that Donald Trump’s former attorney Micheal Cohen went to prison for criminal activity related to improper payments made by the Trump organization. In addition to Micheal Cohen the Trump organization accountant Alan Weisselberg is currently serving a 5-month sentence at the infamous Rikers Island Jail for improper tax reporting and unreported income from the Trump Organization. He is being pressured by the possibility of another criminal charge related to documents provided in order to provide additional information regarding this current indictment of the former president.
The arraignment of Donald Trump will result in a brief court appearance in which the former president will hear the charges the State of New York is bringing against him and allow him or his attorney to make a plea on his behalf. It is generally expected that Trump will plead not guilty at this time. Once his plea is entered into the court he is expected to begin the legal process and move toward the defense of the charges brought against him. In the time before the plea is entered Trump is expected to be formally booked by the DA’s office. He will be fingerprinted and mostly likely not photographed. Even though many people expect Trump to have his mugshot taken it is highly unlikely in this instance that Donald Trump will get a mugshot taken. There are a few reasons why he will not have a mugshot taken. There is no real law enforcement reason to take a booking photograph of Donald Trump. He is not a flight risk, there are many high-resolution photographs of him already available and he is recognized across the world. If there were to be a mugshot taken there is a high probability that the image would be leaked thus resulting in blowback to the Manhatten DA’s office. The New York statute actually reads that a mugshot “may” be taken and does not require one to be taken. Generally, mugshots are used by law enforcement to identify individuals that are a public threat, and generally not in custody. At least that was their intended purpose.
Alvan Bragg, Jr, Sealed Indictment, Arrangement, Donald Trump, Trump’s Mugshot
Alex Adekola is a proven thought leader in the reputation management industry who has targeted mugshot publishers since 2012. He is the longest-serving reputation and crisis management strategist and has written extensively on crisis management. He is the creator and director of strategy at Incept Technologies.