AP reports:
Days after Shepard Fairey acknowledged trying to destroy potentially damaging evidence in his legal battle with the AP, the news organization filed amended papers in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday accusing the poster artist of deliberate deception. Until recently, Fairey had claimed his image was based on a 2006 photo of then-Sen. Barack Obama, seated next to actor George Clooney. Fairey now says he used a solo, close-up shot of Obama, as the AP had long alleged.

"It is simply not credible that Fairey somehow forgot in January 2009 which source image he used to create the Infringing Works, which were completed only a year earlier in January 2008," according to the papers filed Tuesday.

"It also strains credulity that an experienced graphic designer such as Shepard Fairey misremembered cropping George Clooney out of a source image and making other changes ... when no such cropping or other changes were ever made."
Calls and e-mail messages to Fairey's lead counsel, Anthony Falzone, and Fairey's publicist, Jay Strell, were not immediately returned. READ MORE