Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Mugshots of former US president Donald Trump post his arraignment in a New York criminal court on hush money charges
Fact
Donald Trump did not have his mugshot taken, images were created using AI tools
Several purported mugshots of former US President Donald Trump have gone viral with the claim that they were taken during his recent booking and arraignment in a New York criminal court on hush money charges related to allegations of sexual encounters.
Trump has reportedly pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records with the next court hearing scheduled for December 4.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here and here.
Also Read: Giant Fish Attack In Canada? No, Animated Video Viral With False Claims
Fact check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Trump mugshots case”, which led us to multiple news reports on the case involving the early front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
According to an AP report dated April 5, 2023, a slew of such images claiming to show the former president’s mug shot spread online, even though Trump didn’t actually take one during his booking and arraignment in a Manhattan criminal court. “Trump was fingerprinted as part of the booking process, but his mugshot was not taken, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials could not publicly discuss details of the process and spoke to The Associated Press (AP) on condition of anonymity,” read the report, adding that more than 10 fabricated images purporting to show Trump’s police photo circulated across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok on April 4, some more realistic than others. The report stated that some of the “mugshots” were created using artificial intelligence text-to-image generators. A tweet by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman confirmed that no mugshot was taken.
We also came across this CBS news report, dated April 4, 2023, which clearly states that “…Trump did not have his mugshot taken when he surrendered to authorities at a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday, according to his lawyer Joe Tacopina.”
“Even if Trump was to have had his mugshot taken, New York bans law enforcement from releasing most mugshots publicly,” read the report, which led us to a New York state law passed in 2019. According to the “mugshot bill”, “disclosure of law enforcement arrest or booking photographs of an individual” is an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” unless disclosing the photographs serves a specific law enforcement purpose”, which means that if a mugshot of Trump did exist, it likely wouldn’t be released to the public.
Last month, social media was flooded with fabricated images purporting to show Trump being violently arrested by New York City police officers, which was later revealed to be produced using increasingly sophisticated and widely accessible image generators powered by artificial intelligence.
“Many of the bogus mugshots bore hallmarks of synthetic artwork, such as nonsensical numbered text in the background instead of a height chart often seen in booking photos,” read the AP report. We can see the same indicators in the viral “mugshots”, confirming that they were fabricated.
Conclusion
“Mugshots” of Donald Trump taken after his booking in a criminal court were found to be digitally created, even as it was confirmed that the former US president did not have his mugshot taken.
Result: False
Source
AP news report, April 5, 2023
CBS news report, April 4, 2023
Tweet by Maggie Haberman, April 4, 2023
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
