An ex-Trump adviser joked that the former president will take “the most handsome mugshot of all time” after he was indicted last week for his alleged involvement in a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.
“We’ll have a mug shot. For the record, it will be the most manly, most masculine, most handsome mugshot of all time,” Hogan Gidley, who served as a Trump White House and campaign spokesperson, said in remarks to Time magazine. “I can say that definitely, before having even seen it.”
Former President Trump was indicted last Thursday for his involvement in a hush money payment to Daniels to cover up an alleged affair that he has repeatedly denied.
Former President Trump.
Trump traveled to Manhattan on Monday ahead of his arraignment on Tuesday, where he will hear the charges brought against him in his first court appearance.
It is expected that the former president will take a mugshot, but it is unclear whether the photo will be released to the public.
New York law discourages the release of a mug shot unless there is a legitimate reason for law enforcement to public release it, but Trump could release the image on his own, according to the Albany Times Union.
“The fears and concerns of a weaponized government are now personified in Donald Trump,” Gidley told Time. “He can take that pulpit, that podium, and point out the fact that we are all victims of a government that has targeted each of us because we attend the wrong rallies, like the wrong tweets, go to the wrong movies.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer who pled guilty for his involvement in the hush money payment, said he believes Trump will “absolutely” take a mug shot and get his fingerprints taken.
The charges Trump is facing remain sealed, but they could be unsealed when he appears in court Tuesday.
After his appearance in court, Trump is slated to travel back to Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida, to deliver a set of remarks at 8:15 p.m. the same day.
—Updated at 9:07 p.m.