Trump's mugshot T-shirt cash grab could backfire and cost him millions: legal experts

According to SiriusXM radio host Dean Obeidallah, there is a legitimate legal case to be made that Donald Trump is violating U.S. copyright laws by selling merchandise emblazoned with his Fulton County mugshot -- and that could lead to major financial difficulties for him.

In a column for MSNBC, the attorney wrote that there has been a longstanding legal argument about who owns images like the now-infamous glowering Trump headshot associated with his indictment on RICO charges.

Noting that the former president has boasted that he raised a quick $7 million after his indictment in part by selling $34 mug shot t-shirts and “Never Surrender” coffee mugs for $25, he asserted the Fulton County Sheriff's department could come after the former president.

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"Various legal experts have noted, Trump’s sale of that mug shot, taken by the Fulton County sheriff, may violate U.S. copyright laws. This could mean that theoretically, the millions he is making off that photo may rightfully belong to the Fulton County sheriff — an entity that just happens to be in desperate need of funds to address the horrific conditions in the Fulton County Jail," he wrote.

Bolstering his case he added, "Betsy Rosenblatt, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, recently explained to Spectrum News 1 Ohio that the copyright owner of Trump’s mug shot is likely the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office."

According to a 2022 article in the University of Georgia School of Law’s Journal of Intellectual Property Law, "In the context of photographs taken by law enforcement during the booking process, the author of the mugshot photograph is the law enforcement agency.”

The way Obeidallah sees it, it's up to Fulton County if they want to see Trump in court -- again -- over copyright infringement.

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"Recently, Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat pleaded with county commissioners for funding he desperately needs to address conditions in the county jail, according to local station 11 Alive. LaBat told the commissioners, 'It’s a human crisis, and I have been begging for the resources,' adding, 'I’m really, really tired of begging for money to do my job,'" to which the MSNBC columnist added, "If LaBat brings a claim of copyright infringement against Trump’s campaign and wins, he could see millions of dollars come his agency’s way to address those issues. That would at least be a just result."

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