Trump Will Raise Money Off Georgia Mugshot, Ex-White House Lawyer Predicts

Ex-White House attorney Ty Cobb predicted on Friday that former President Donald Trump will fundraise off his Georgia mugshot.

A Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury indicted Trump and 18 allies on Monday on state criminal charges in connection with their alleged efforts to overturn the former president's loss in the state during the 2020 presidential election. The indictment follows a two-and-a-half-year long investigation by District Attorney Fani Willis.

The probe initially focused on Trump's telephone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom he allegedly asked to find enough votes to tilt the election in his favor, but it was later expanded to include alleged efforts to submit a false slate of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case, saying Willis has targeted him for political purposes.

Trump could be forced to take his first mugshot when he turns himself in for arraignment, a date for which has not yet been set. Although Trump had been indicted three times prior to the latest announcement, other prosecutors have opted to not require a mugshot in those cases.

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat has indicated that his office would likely take a mugshot of the former president, telling reporters that "it doesn't matter your status" during a press conference earlier this month. This would make Trump the first United States president to ever have a mugshot.

Cobb, former U.S. assistant attorney and member of the Trump legal team between July 2017 and May 2018, predicted Trump's 2024 presidential campaign would use the mugshot to raise money before he leaves the jail during an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett on Friday.

"I don't think he'll be subjected to any physical search, personally, by the sheriff's office," he said. "But I do think they will insist on the mugshot and the fingerprinting. Because that does seem to be routine there and Fani Willis has said that's going to happen. So, I would expect that will happen. I would expect the mugshot will be a forwarded to Trump's PR [public relations] people and they'll be raising money off of it before he leaves the jail," he said.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.

Cobb also weighed in on when Trump's trials in his federal cases surrounding alleged election interference and classified documents may take place. He cast doubt that Trump's request for a 2026 trial in the election interference case would be accepted by a federal judge.

"I saw the 2026 proposal and I laughed because that's nowhere, you know, within the neighborhood of the universe, of possible dates," he said. "I don't think that was a lawyer who decided the date. I think that probably was a Trump-dictated date. I'm sure that the lawyers probably proposed something slightly more reasonable, even though that would be unlikely to be achieved."

Cobb added that he believes the case can easily be and will be tried before the summer of 2024.

When Will Trump Go to Trial?

Judge Aileen Cannon has set a trial date of May 24, 2024, in Trump's classified documents trial. In this case, federal prosecutors are accusing the former president of taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence, from the White House after leaving office in January 2021, as well as obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. Trump, who pleaded not guilty during his arraignment, has maintained that the Presidential Records Act allowed him to take these documents.

A date has not yet been set for the federal election interference trial. However, Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith has requested a trial beginning in January 2024.

Meanwhile, Trump is expected to face a March 2024 trial in a case out of New York, in which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office is accusing Trump of falsifying business records in connection to an alleged hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in relation to an alleged affair. Trump has denied the payment and affair, and pleaded not guilty during his arraignment.