Photo of Fairey by Jim Kiernan

Shepard Fairey (or as the NY Post is calling him, the "Obama poster artist") may be spending some time behind bars. The street artist used a copyrighted photo when he created the iconic "HOPE" poster for Barack Obama's 2008 campaign (the New Yorker called it "the most efficacious American political illustration since 'Uncle Sam Wants You'"). While he settled that case to the tune of $1.6 million already, the problem now comes back to haunt him.

Three years ago Fairey had admitted to making false statements that he had used a cropped photo of Obama with George Clooney. To back up, in February 2009 Fairey filed a federal lawsuit against the Associated Press, seeking a declaratory judgment that his use of the AP photograph was protected by the fair use doctrine and so did not infringe their copyright.

"In October 2009 Shepard Fairey admitted he had tried to deceive the Court by destroying evidence that he had instead used the photograph alleged by the AP. Fairey admitted he had used a close-up shot of Obama, also taken by Mannie Garcia, as the AP had long alleged. The solo photo appears much more similar to the final HOPE poster than the photo of Clooney and Obama."

Today Fairey is scheduled to be sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, after the Department of Justice has filed a memorandum arguing that a prison term for the 42-year-old artist would be “appropriate,” according to the Smoking Gun. Prosecutors have told the U.S. Magistrate Judge in Manhattan that "Fairey had 'both an ideological and financial motive' to alter evidence in his favor after basing his poster on one of the AP’s photographs. 'This was not a mere failure to preserve documents... This was the intentional destruction of evidence and the intentional manufacture of false evidence. The defendant knew exactly what he was doing when he created the fake documents and sought to destroy the deleted documents.”

He reportedly faces six months behind bars for contempt of court, and Manhattan federal prosecutor Daniel Levy has called Fairey's lies "extraordinarily serious litigation misconduct." Isn't this Obama's Department of Justice? Can't he just be... pardoned, or something?

UPDATE: Fairey was sentenced to 2 years of probation, community service and a $25,000 fine.