Georgia law required Trump mugshot in latest criminal case: experts

Donald Trump had his mugshot taken Thursday in the fourth criminal case to be mounted against him — despite being spared the embarrassment on three prior occasions — because of a Georgia law mandating the formality, experts say.

The former president was booked at the Fulton County Jail Thursday evening on charges that he tried to unlawfully overturn Georgia’s 2020 election result, and was captured scowling at the camera in the image released just before 9 p.m.

The 77-year-old called the ordeal a “terrible experience,’ adding in a Newsmax interview that he’d never “heard the word ‘mugshot’” before.

But while Trump wasn’t forced to have a booking photo taken in either the Manhattan ‘hush money’ case, the Mar-a-Lago documents case and in the federal case accusing him of trying to overthrow the 2020 election result, veteran lawyer and former Fulton County prosecutor Darryl Cohen told The Post getting a mugshot in the Peach State is “normal, it’s procedure.”

“In all the years of my practice, I’ve never seen a person allowed to be arrested without being fingerprinted and having their mugshot taken,” Cohen said.

State law requires accused felons to be fingerprinted and have their photo taken, so the move “was not targeted at Trump to hurt him and the other defendants,” Cohen said. “It was not vindictive at all.”

In fact, Trump and his 18 co-defendants — including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani — were all given nicer treatment than most defendants by being allowed to negotiate their bond ahead of time, show up for booking at a pre-arranged time and wear their own clothes, Cohen said.

“This is very unusual,” the lawyer said. “It’s treating them quite well, much better than most people go through. This is as nice and professional as the DA’s office could be.”

William Head, a long-time criminal defense attorney in the county, told The Post, “In 47 years of doing criminal work, I have had many famous and rich clients, and every one of them had their mugshot taken.”

Former Manhattan prosecutor Michael Bachner told The Post that while fingerprinting is required at a booking in New York, mugshots are done at the discretion of the NYPD.

“In theory, a mugshot is taken so that the defendant’s picture is on file for purposes of if they were to flee etc.,” Bachner said. “So they could circulate a picture. But with someone like Trump whose face is all over the place, it’s really not necessary.”

In the prior cases, Trump legal spokesman Alina Habba had similarly argued, there was no reason for Trump to get his mugshot taken, since one of the most recognizable people in the world could hardly be considered a flight risk.

Trump is the first president in US history to have his picture taken as part of the booking process.

He spent 20 minutes at the crumbling jail Thursday after he was indicted on Aug. 14 on 13 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, false statements and asking a public official to violate their oath of office.

He was released on $200,000 bond and agreed to an order that curbs what he can say, including on social media, about witnesses and co-defendants in the case.

He has adamantly maintained his innocence in the newest case, as well as in the other three cases.

“Just an absolute horrible thing that they’re doing,” he told Newsmax of the prosecutions, after telling reporters on the tarmac at Atlanta’s airport Thursday night that his arrest was “a very sad day for our country.”