Mug shots, also known as booking photos, serve a few functions. One is to identify the person who was arrested — for instance, to distinguish among people who have the same name.

Before the release of Trump's mug shot, police departments and newsrooms had already been debating the ethics around publishing such photos. For most people, mug shots are taken during one of the ...

In the photo, Mr. Trump is posed against a plain gray backdrop, just like the 11 of his fellow defendants whose mug shots were taken before him, including Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell and Rudolph ...