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Washington: Donald Trump has returned to Washington to plead not guilty to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, adding to a string of explosive trials the former president will face as he campaigns to return to the White House.
Almost two-and-a-half-years after the deadly attack on the US Capitol building, Trump has appeared at a federal court a few blocks away from the scene of the riots, to face criminal charges for the third time in four months.
National Airport as he heads to Washington to face a judge on federal conspiracy charges .Credit: AP
Declaring it “a great honour” to be charged for “having challenged a corrupt, rigged and stolen election” the 77-year-old Republican left his golf course in New Jersey around 1pm on Thursday (US time) to travel to the nation’s capital.
Amid heightened security, he arrived in court shortly before 3.30pm, where he will plead not guilty to four charges relating to his role in trying to stop Joe Biden’s presidential victory from being certified: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; conspiracy against rights (namely, the rights of voters).
Those charges essentially put Trump at the centre of a months-long, multi-part plan to stay in power by stoking lies about voter fraud, embracing a scheme designed to use fake electors to flip electoral college votes in seven battleground states, mounting a pressure campaign on state and federal officials to overturn the results, and exploiting the protest that led to the Capitol riots.
Donald Trump has been charged for his role in the January 6 2021 Capitol riots and efforts to overturn the election.Credit: AP
Trump, however, continues to maintain his innocence, and is expected to fight the charges in trial by arguing that he is protected by America’s right to free speech, and that he genuinely believed that the 2020 election was rigged.
“It’s a very straightforward defence – that he had every right to advocate for a position that he believed in and that his supporters believed in,” his lawyer John Lauro told NPR.
“What we will argue to the jury – and we’ll win – is that the president was arguing for the truth to come out in that election cycle, rather than the truth to be denied.”
The latest charges come merely a few weeks after Trump was indicted in a Miami court for his alleged mishandling of classified documents – a case that was scheduled to go to trial in May.
In April, he was also charged in a Manhattan court over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in a trial that is expected to begin in March.
And in Georgia, a potential fourth indictment looms, with District Attorney Fani Willis set to decide this month whether to charge Trump over alleged electoral interference in that state.
Despite his legal woes, Trump continues to remain defiant, posting on his Truth Social platform: “I NEED ONE MORE INDICTMENT TO ENSURE MY ELECTION!”
Outside the federal courthouse in Washington – the same courthouse where hundreds of January 6 rioters have also been prosecuted – a security perimeter went up overnight ahead of Trump’s afternoon appearance.
A supporter of the former President Donald Trump waves a flag near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse in WashingtonCredit: AP
The building was surrounded by metal barricades and yellow tape from the US Marshall’s office, and numerous roads around the DC’s judicial precinct had been blocked off.
A few blocks away, metal fencing had also been placed around the US Capitol building – the site where thousands of Trump supporters staged a violent insurrection in 2021 that left several people dead and about 150 police officers injured.
But by lunchtime on Thursday, only a small number of Trump supporters had gathered along Constitution Avenue – in stark contrast to the crowds that appeared in New York and Miami ahead of his earlier indictments.
One man drove past in a limousine with the license plate “TRUMP DC,” his identity obscured by a cardboard cutout of the former president’s face.
The U.S. Capitol is seen in the distance as Nadine Seiler holds a banner at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse Credit: AP
“We need to make America great again,” he said, declining to give his name.
Another Trump supporter, Dion Cini, was wearing a red MAGA hat and waving a flag that said: “Trump or Death.”
Cini said he had been in Washington on January 6, 2021 to do “what President Trump said: peacefully and patriotically make my way to the Capitol”. Asked if he entered the building that day, he replied: “I can’t answer that.”
However, the New York resident was adamant that the latest charges would not hurt the former president’s chances of winning the Republican nomination.
“I think he’ll go up five points in the polls,” he said. “The Democrats think they’re a smart organisation but they’re too dumb for their own good.”
The latest indictment was handed down on Thursday by special counsel Jack Smith – the same prosecutor who has charged Trump over the classified documents scandal. It is largely centred around Trump but also lists six unnamed co-conspirators who allegedly assisted his efforts to overturn the election.
Five of them have so far been identified as former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesboro, and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. The sixth alleged co-conspirator is a political consultant but it is not yet clear who that is.
With fifteen months before the presidential election, many Republicans continue rally around Trump, saying he is being unfairly targeted by a “two-tiered” justice system under the Biden administration.
Some incorrectly claim that Biden is also currently under investigation after classified documents were found in his possession (a conclusion has not yet been reached by Special Counsel Robert Hur); others point to the alleged “sweetheart” plea deal his son Hunter received to avoid jail over tax evasion and unlawful gun possession.
Biden has been holiday in Rehoboth Beach this week and has not commented on the matters involving Trump, or the troubles of his son.
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