Recap
Here are the main things you need to know about the day’s events.
The special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four felony counts.
Conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
Conspiracy against rights.
Trump pleads not guilty to four charges over efforts to overturn 2020 election
Trump has been defiant in his response to the indictment, but appeared quiet and restrained in the courtroom.
The former president sat at the defense table, folding and unfolding his hands. His plea of not guilty was quiet, almost imperceptible. In his remarks before and after his appearance in court, he was more of his usual self.
“When you look at what’s happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent,” he said at Ronald Reagan airport. “This was never supposed to happen in America.”
Smith this week said he was pursuing a “speedy trial”, and the magistrate judge seemed to follow suit.
Unlike Trump’s other legal cases, where the next court dates were scheduled for months later, the first hearing for this case will happen within the month. Trump’s lawyers challenged the swiftness of the proceedings but the date was not changed.
“All we would ask, Your Honor, is the opportunity to fairly defend our client,” lawyer John Lauro said. “But in order to do that, we’re going to need a little time.”
Trump can still run for president if he is charged and even convicted.
The US constitution does not bar those convicted of a crime from running for president.
There could be a pathway to blocking him, through the 14th amendment to the US constitution. That says someone cannot hold office if they have taken an oath to the United States, as Trump did when he was inaugurated, and then engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the country.
While some have distanced themselves, many of Trump’s allies and inner circle remain close to the former president.
Trump’s co-defendant in the federal case over the former president’s retention of classified documents, Walt Nauta, accompanied him to the courthouse in Washington. Evan Corcoran, a Trump lawyer who was compelled to testify in the classified documents case, was also present.
The presiding judge is no stranger to issues of election subversion.
Tanya Chutkan, appointed by Barack Obama, has handed down strict sentences for January 6 rioters. She once blocked an attempt by Trump to refuse a House January 6 committee request for White House files. That decision released mounds of evidence that shaped the investigation, Politico reported.
– Guardian Staff
Updated
Who is Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump?
Smith, a 54-year-old veteran prosecutor appointed as special counsel by the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in November 2022, has now brought two indictments against Trump, the first one surrounding Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents that were discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice,” Smith said in a statement.
“The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate,” he added.
Before his appointment as special counsel in the Trump investigations, Smith was the specialist prosecutor at The Hague’s Kosovo specialist chambers where he investigated war crimes from 1998 to 2000 during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia.
Smith, a registered independent and graduate of Harvard law school, began his three-decade career as a prosecutor in 1994 at the Manhattan district attorney’s office – the same office which filed a 34-count indictment against Trump in April surrounding hush-money payments during the 2016 presidential election.
Read more:
Meanwhile, a Michigan attorney involved in efforts around the country to overturn the 2020 results has been charged in connection with tampering with voting machines.
Stefanie Lambert was one of several in a scheme to “gain access to voting tabulators.”
Michigan, the state attorney general Dana Nessel’s office said last year. Lawyer Matthew DePerno and former Republican state representative Daire Rendon were also recently arraigned in connection with the scheme.
Here’s more from the AP:
Investigators there say five vote tabulators were illegally taken from three counties and brought to a hotel room, according to documents released last year by Nessel’s office.
The tabulators were then broken into and “tests” were performed on the equipment.
Prosecutors said that Thursday’s announcement “ends the charging decisions in this investigation.”Investigators named nine individuals in connection with the scheme. Those not charged include Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan, Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, Ben Cotton, Jeff Lenberg and James Penrose.
Local clerks that turned over the vote tabulators and others who analyzed the equipment “were deceived by some of the charged defendants,” according to a statement from special prosecutor D.J. Hilson.
Hilson convened a grand jury in March to determine whether criminal indictments should be issued, court documents show. The citizen grand jury “carefully listened to the sworn testimony,” and “returned a decision to indict each of the defendants,” Hilson said Thursday.
Who is Tanya Chutkan, the presiding judge?
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was randomly chosen to preside over this case, is no stranger to election subversion issues – and this won’t be her first time dealing with the ex-president.
Chutkan, who was appointed by Barack Obama, ruled in 2021 that the House January 6 committee could access Trump’s White House files, which helped the committee access call logs, memos and other documents that provided key evidence in their investigation. “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” Chutkan memorably wrote in her ruling back then.
The committee’s findings helped fuel Jack Smith’s investigation, which culminated in this indictment.
Chutkan has also delivered harsh sentences to January 6 rioters, though she has avoided commenting on the role that Trump and his allies played, as some of her colleagues have done. Federal judge Amit Metha, for example, said rioter John Lolos was a “pawn in a game directed and played by people who should know better”.
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The next step in this case will be setting a date for the trial.
A first hearing date has been set for 28 August, but in the meantime, the government will file a brief detailing how long it thinks the trial will take and proposing dates, and the Trump defense will have time to respond and address those proposals.
As with the classified documents case, we expect the government will want a speedy trial, so that the issue can be resolved quickly, before the 2024 election, while the Trump team will like want to delay things until after the election.
Courtroom sketch shows Trump pleading not guilty
No cameras were allowed inside the Washington federal courtroom where Donald Trump was arraigned on charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Courtroom sketch artist Bill Hennessy caught the moment the former president pleaded not guilty to four felony counts outlined in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment.
Courtroom sketch of Trump pleading not guilty to all four counts related to 2020 election subversion — by Bill Hennessy pic.twitter.com/aKe8UzglQ6
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 3, 2023
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Donald Trump case tracker: where does each investigation stand?
Twice impeached and now arrested and indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious criminal charges in New York, Florida and Washington over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election, his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. A New York jury awarded Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her in 1996, $5m in damages.
And more criminal charges could be on the way for Trump in Georgia. Here is where each case against Trump stands:
What happens if Trump goes on trial during the presidential primaries?
A trial in the middle of the presidential primary would be a blockbuster moment in American politics. It would offer an unvarnished look at all of the ways Donald Trump knowingly tried to subvert the results of the 2020 election, with key aides and allies forced to testify under oath. The trial would not be televised, since federal courts do not allow cameras in the courtroom.
Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Los Angelos, wrote:
A trial is the best chance to educate the American public, as the January 6 House committee hearings did to some extent, about the actions Trump allegedly took to undermine American democracy and the rule of law.
Constant publicity from the trial would give the American people in the middle of the election season a close look at the actions Trump took for his own personal benefit while putting lives and the country at risk.
Practically, it’s unclear what impact a trial would have on Trump’s campaigning. While it could pull him off the campaign trail, Trump favors large rallies that are typically held in the evening or on weekends.
Trump’s legal schedule for next year remains unclear. He already has criminal trials scheduled in Manhattan in March over hush-money payments and another in May over his handling of classified documents. Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting the case, has sought a speedy trial.
Donald Trump’s valet and co-defendant in the federal classified documents case, Walt Nauta, accompanied the former president to Washington, CNN’s Kaitlin Collins writes.
The man who handed Trump his umbrella as he exited the motorcade at the airport was Walt Nauta, his co-defendant in the other case.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 3, 2023
Three police officers who defended the US Capitol against violent rioters on January 6th attended Donald Trump’s hearing in the Washington federal courthouse.
Capitol police officer Harry Dunn, Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges, and former Sgt Aquilino Gonell of the US Capitol police all responded to the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 2021.
In a statement, Gonell said “not prosecuting is far riskier than having no consequences for the alleged power grab attempts”.
Law and order… pic.twitter.com/mYiY2zAzuq
— Staff Sergeant Gonell, Aquilino (@SergeantAqGo) August 3, 2023
“All I have wanted from day one is accountability,” Dunn said in a statement released by his lawyer.
Donald Trump claims his arraignment is a 'sad day for America'
Donald Trump gave a brief statement to reporters after arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following his arraignment.
The former president said it was a “sad day for America” and that it was also “very sad” to drive through Washington DC and see “the filth and decay”.
“This is not the place that I left. It’s a very sad thing to see,” Trump said.
When you look at what’s happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America.
He went on to claim that it was “the persecution of the person who is leading by very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot”.
So if you can’t beat him, you persecute him or you prosecute them. We can’t let this happen in America.
Updated
Donald Trump is currently on his way back to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Here are the latest images from the newswires:
Updated
The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief David Smith is outside the courthouse where Donald Trump was arraigned:
Crowd outside court in light rain: pic.twitter.com/bS0bbQB50T
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) August 3, 2023
Trump expected to speak after leaving courthouse
Donald Trump’s motorcade has left the federal courthouse in Washington after his court hearing concluded after just under half an hour.
The former president is expected to speak to reporters when he arrives at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. He will then board his plane to return to him home in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Trump lawyer John Lauro said the defense team will ask for the exclusion of the Speedy Trial Act in the Trump 2020 election interference case.
Lauro said:
All we would ask your honor is the opportunity to fairly defend our client but in order to do that, we’re going to need a little time.
Judge Upadhyaya ordered Lauro to make a written filing in five days, with a DOJ response within five days after that.
Updated
Donald Trump’s hearing is now over, and he has left the courtroom.
The former president is expected to speak to reporters before he boards his plane back to Bedminster, New Jersey.
Judge sets first hearing in case for 28 August
US magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya has set the first hearing in the case for 10am Eastern time (15:00 BST) on 28 August.
The judge said district judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been assigned to oversee the case against Trump for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was willing to waive Trump’s appearance at the first hearing if he wants.
Judge Upadhyaya had offered up three potential dates. Prosecutors had asked for the earliest - 21 August - while the defense requested the latest date – 28 August.
Updated
My colleague Hugo Lowell has some more detail on Donald Trump’s bail conditions, which the former president signed after being sworn in.
Trump was warned that violating the conditions of his release could result in a warrant issued for his arrest, and that he may be held pending trial and receive a longer sentence.
New: Conditions of release for Trump include prohibition from discussing facts of the case with anyone known to be a witness in this case except thru counsel
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 3, 2023
Also: Must not violate federal, state or local law; Must appear in court as required and if convicted serve a sentence the court may impose; Must sign an appearance bond (no amount read by the judge).
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) August 3, 2023
Updated
Donald Trump sat forward in his chair as the judge talked about the “term of imprisonment” he could face if convicted.
Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya then said:
At this time I will arraign Mr Trump.
Trump’s team entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.
Judge Upadhyaya to Trump:
If you fail to comply with any of the conditions of your release, a warrant may be issued for your arrest.
Donald Trump pleads not guilty on all counts
Donald Trump entered a plea of not guilty after the counts of the indictment were read to him by the judge.
The former president was arrested and arraigned on four felony counts outlined in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
Updated
US magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya is reading each count against Donald Trump. The former president has been charged with four counts:
Count 1: Conspiracy to defraud the United States
Count 2: Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
Count 3: Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
Count 4: Conspiracy against rights
Standing then sitting again, Trump tells judge his name and age:
Yes, your honor. Donald J Trump. John. 77.
Asked if he has taken a medication or substance in the last 24 hours that would impair his answers, Trump replies:
No, I have not.
Donald Trump’s response when asked his age by the magistrate judge:
Seven-seven
US magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya has entered courtroom for Donald Trump’s arraignment.
The hearing has begun.
Updated
Special counsel Jack Smith is around 15ft away from Donald Trump (the tables are 4ft wide), per person familiar with the room layout.
At E Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse where video feed shows Donald Trump, in blue suit, white shirt and red tie, entering courtroom and sitting at table, folding and unfolding hands, unable to keep still.
He picks up a document and quickly puts it down again.
Here are some of the latest images from the news wires of the scenes outside the Washington federal court where Donald Trump is being arraigned.
Donald Trump is currently inside courtroom 22A of the E Barrett Prettyman courthouse in Washington DC, in his first appearance in federal court after being indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The indictment charges Trump with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The 45-page indictment outlined in stark detail how Trump and his allies knowingly spread false allegations of election fraud, convened fraudulent electors and attempted to block the certification of the election on January 6.
“Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power,” the indictment says.
So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020 the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he actually won. These claims were false and the defendant knew they were false.
But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of elections.
The charges marked the first time Trump has faced criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Donald Trump is sitting in special counsel Jack Smith’s direct line of sight in the courtroom — and Smith almost certainly just stared at Trump.
Updated
In the courtroom, the tables for the defense and the prosecution are arranged perpendicular to the judge’s bench with three seats on each side.
At the defense table, Donald Trump placed himself between his lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro, who is in the seat nearest to the US magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya, who is managing today’s arraignment.
Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran has arrived in the courtroom for Trump’s arraignment, except he’s sitting in the front row of the audience section instead of the defense table.
This could mean he won’t enter a notice of appearance in this case.
Donald Trump arrives in courtroom
Donald Trump has arrived in the courtroom for his first appearance after being charged with four felonies over his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump is expected to plead not guilty to all charges, according to people close to his legal team.
The former president is sitting at the table reserved for defendants with his lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche. Another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, earlier sat down in the front row of the audience.
Special counsel Jack Smith arrives in courtroom
Special counsel Jack Smith has arrived in the courtroom for Donald Trump’s arraignment with three of his prosecutors.
Smith is sitting in the front row in the spectator section of the courtroom.
At the table reserved for the prosecution are his prosecutors, including Thomas Windom and Molly Gaston.
Updated
Donald Trump was joined on Trump Force One by Alina Habba, general counsel and a spokesperson for the Save America PAC, as well as campaign advisers Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita, Jason Miller and Steven Cheung, NBC reported.
Political and legal adviser Boris Epshteyn was also on the plane.
Chief US district court judge Jim Boasberg is in court to watch arraignment
Chief US district court judge Jim Boasberg is in the courtroom for Donald Trump’s arraignment.
He just walked in and took a seat near the back of the audience.
Updated
Who is Tanya Chutkan, the judge in Trump's January 6 trial
Tanya Chutkan is also the only judge who has delivered stricter sentences against January 6 defendants than requested by federal prosecutors. In December 2021, she imposed the longest sentence at the time for a January 6 rioter – 63 months in jail for Robert Palmer, a Florida man who sprayed Capitol police with a fire extinguisher.
She said at his sentencing, justifying lengthy jail time:
It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment.
Eleanor Norton, the US congresswoman who has represented DC since 1991, recommended Chutkan, then a partner at a private law firm, to the post in 2013, according to a press release at the time.
Chutkan became the third Black woman ever to serve on the sole DC district court, joining Ketanji B Jackson, now a supreme court justice, on the bench in 2014.
A different federal judge, Moxila A Upadhyaya, will preside over Trump’s arraignment at a federal courthouse in DC on Thursday afternoon.
Updated
Donald Trump was driven into the building of the Washington federal courthouse for a scheduled 4pm Eastern time (21:00 BST) arraignment, after flying from his New Jersey golf course to Reagan National Airport in Washington.
The former president has been charged with four counts:
Conspiracy to defraud the United States
Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
Conspiracy against rights
Updated
Trump arrives at courthouse to be arraigned on federal charges
Donald Trump has arrived at a federal courthouse in Washington DC to be arraigned on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
After arriving at the E Barrett Prettyman courthouse, Trump will be booked and fingerprinted in the federal district court before being escorted to his arraignment, which has been set for 4pm Eastern time.
The former president is scheduled to appear before magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya. Handling the case going forward will be federal district judge Tanya Chutkan.
Trump is expected to plead not guilty and to be released pending trial. He is expected to speak after his appearance in court before returning to his home in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The initial appearance from Trump to enter a plea formally starts the months-long pre-trial process that will run into the timetable for his other criminal trials next year and the 2024 presidential race, where Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
Updated
A federal judge who has emerged as one of the toughest authorities against rioters who participated in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol will soon meet her most high-profile defendant: Donald Trump.
Tanya Chutkan, a 2014 appointee of former president Barack Obama, was randomly assigned to oversee the case on Tuesday after a federal grand jury indicted the former president on four counts related to his attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election, including conspiracy and obstruction of official proceedings.
Chutkan was born in Jamaica, where she trained as a classical dancer, and moved to the US where she attended George Washington University before earning her JD at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, according to the DC district court website. She worked as a public defender in DC for a decade before joining the private law firm where she specialized in “litigation and white-collar criminal defense”.
Chutkan has ruled on a Trump case before. She once blocked an attempt by Trump to refuse the House January 6 select committee’s request for White House files in the months after the election. That decision released mounds of evidence that shaped the committee’s investigation, according to Politico.
In her November 2021 ruling, Chutkan described the attack as an “unprecedented attempt to prevent the lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next [that] caused property damage, injuries, and death”.
But that case involved only legal questions about court proceedings and did not require her to rule on Trump’s role in the riot.
Trump arrives in Washington
Donald Trump’s plane, Trump Force One, has landed at Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA).
His motorcade will then take him to the E Barrett Prettyman courthouse, roughly a five mile (8km) drive from the airport.
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Do the charges mean Trump can’t run for president?
No. The US constitution does not bar those convicted of a crime from running for president.
There could be a pathway to blocking him, however, through the constitution’s 14th amendment. That provision says that someone cannot hold office if they have taken an oath to the United States, as Donald Trump did when he was inaugurated, and engage in “insurrection or rebellion” against the country.
There’s likely to be a flurry of separate civil lawsuits in state courts seeking to disqualify Trump on that basis. Some activists have already begun a push to disqualify Trump in Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and California.
Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in an email:
The new charges against Trump, and especially a conviction on those charges, would bolster the case that Trump should be disqualified under the 14th amendment. But much is uncertain here, and I expect attempts to disqualify Trump to go forward regardless of what happens with the new charges.
Last year, a judge in New Mexico used the 14th amendment to remove a county commissioner from his post after the commissioner was found guilty on federal charges related to January 6. It was the first time since the civil war that an official had been removed from their post for engaging in an insurrection.
Noah Bookbinder, the president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), which filed the New Mexico case, said his organization had already been planning to file civil cases to disqualify Trump under the 14th amendment. He noted that the 14th amendment doesn’t require a criminal conviction to mount a challenge and that litigation is likely to be ongoing while Trump’s criminal charges are pending. He said:
Obviously an indictment and particularly a conviction would strengthen the case under the 14th amendment.
Here’s a clip of Joe Biden, who is currently on vacation at his beach home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, being asked by a CNN reporter whether he will follow Donald Trump’s arraignment this afternoon.
Biden tells @JayMcMichaelCNN he won’t be following Trump’s arraignment in federal court today: “NO” pic.twitter.com/TmdURLQQ5r
— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) August 3, 2023
Earlier this morning, Biden ignored shouted questions from reporters on Trump’s indictment and arraignment in Washington.
.@POTUS taking his morning bike ride in Rehoboth, Beach, on a day when his former and potentially future rival, former President Trump, must appear in Washington for charges related to Jan. 6. pic.twitter.com/INI3TM4gvQ
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) August 3, 2023
Former vice president and GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence said his campaign received more than 7,400 donations since the release of Donald Trump’s most recent indictment, The Hill reported, citing a Pence adviser.
Trump was charged with four felonies this week over his attempts to meddle with the presidential election. The 45-page indictment shows that Pence was a crucial figure in Jack Smith, the special counsel, being able to bring those charges.
“Contemporaneous notes” taken by Pence, and referred to in the indictment, document how Trump and his advisers pressured Pence to reject the certification of the election in January, which could have resulted in the House of Representatives handing Trump a second-term in office.
Here’s a clip of Donald Trump leaving his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, to make him way to the airport and fly to Washington DC, where he has been summoned to appear in court at 4pm Eastern time (21:00 BST).
Officers who responded to the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 2021 plan to attend the first hearing in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against Donald Trump today, NBC reported.
Capitol police officer Harry Dunn, Metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges, and former Sgt Aquilino Gonell of the US Capitol police will reportedly head to the Washington courthouse, where Trump will be arraigned on efforts to overturn the 2020 election. All three officers suffered physical injuries as well as emotional and mental trauma as a result of the January 6 attack.
Updated
Nearly 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe that President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was not legitimate, according to new polling by CNN.
The poll, conducted ahead of Trump’s latest indictment, found that the number of Republicans and Republican-leaners who say Biden’s election win was not legitimate has increased from earlier this year.
Overall, 61% of Americans said Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election, and 38% believe he did not, according to the poll.
There is no evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the news wires of the scenes outside the E Barrett Prettyman US federal courthouse in Washington, where Donald Trump is due to appear in just under two hours to answer charges that he conspired to defraud the United States among other crimes in his quest to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Donald Trump, who has just boarded a plane from New Jersey to Washington, used his Truth Social platform to repeat an earlier call for a change of venue in the trial.
He portrayed himself as having been “arrested for protesting a crooked election”, and suggested his trial would be in an “unfair venue” and with a “unfair judge”.
Biden and his family steal Millions and Millions of Dollars, including BRIBES from foreign countries, and I’m headed to D.C. to be ARRESTED for protesting a CROOKED ELECTION. UNFAIR VENUE, UNFAIR JUDGE. We are a Nation in Decline. MAGA!!!
Trump en route to Washington to face charges
Donald Trump has left his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, and is on his way to Washington to be arraigned on charges for efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump is currently on his way to the airport. When he arrives in Washington, he will be booked and fingerprinted in the federal district court before being escorted to his arraignment, which has been set for 4pm Eastern time (21:00 BST),
Today’s hearing in the courthouse – just blocks from the Capitol building, where Trump’s efforts to reverse his election defeat to Joe Biden culminated in the January 6 riot – is expected to be overseen by US magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya.
The former president is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he conspired to defraud the United States among other crimes in his quest to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Updated
The campaign of former vice president and current Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence has started selling “Too Honest” merchandise following Donald Trump’s indictment.
On Thursday, the Mike Pence presidential campaign launched t-shirts and hats from its official store that say “Too Honest.”
The words are a reference to the latest indictment in which Trump is quoted apparently telling Pence, “You’re too honest” during a call where Trump berated Pence after Pence said he did not have the authority to return or reject votes during the 2020 presidential race.
NEW: Mike Pence selling “TOO HONEST” merch in wake of Trump indictment
— Libby Cathey (@libbycathey) August 3, 2023
According to the Special Counsel, Trump called Pence on New Year’s Day in 2021 and “berated him.” When Pence said he didn’t have the authority to return or reject votes, Trump told him, “You’re too honest.” pic.twitter.com/srGkmJWuMG
Nancy Pelosi has weighed in on the third indictment against Donald Trump, calling it “heartbreaking because the president of the United States did not have respect for the office that he held.”
In an interview with MSNBC, the former House speaker added:
“Heartbreaking for the fact that some people in our country still believe him. I respect their point of view. I don’t respect the members of Congress who were under threat that night. I was going to get a bullet in the head… They were all under threat and many of them scared of what might happen…and that was incited by the president of the United States… It’s so sad for our country.”
Nancy Pelosi addresses Trump’s newest indictment: "Heartbreaking because the president of the United States did not have respect for the office that he held. Heartbreaking for the fact that some people in our country still believe him." https://t.co/3kgp8jeidp pic.twitter.com/F3jxaq9LDG
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 3, 2023
A handful of right-wing outlets have been rushing to Donald Trump’s defense after the former president got indicted for the third time.
The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports on how conservative outlets have been attempting to undermine the investigation:
In the minutes after the Trump indictment was filed in federal district court in Washington, conservative commentators rapidly scrambled to his defense. Rightwing pundits lined up to compare the charges to “criminalizing thoughts” and the dropping of “fifteen dozen” atomic bombs – and that was just on Fox News.
Rightwing TV channel Newsmax, which has drained some of Fox News’s audience in recent months, brought on Rudy Giuliani, an unnamed co-conspirator in Tuesday’s indictment, who railed for seven minutes about Hillary Clinton’s emails and Biden being a “crooked president”.
In America’s rightwing media ecosystem it was a largely united front. News outlets repeatedly pressed the idea that Trump’s free speech was being criminalized: that the former president had done nothing more than talk about the election being stolen.
The effort, perhaps deliberately, ignored prosecutors’ allegations that Trump had convened false slates of electors and attempted to block the certification of the election on January 6.
For the full story, click here:
Donald Trump on arraignment: 'It is a great honor'
Donald Trump took to Truth Social ahead of this afternoon’s arraignment, writing in all caps:
“I AM NOW GOING TO WASHINGTON D.C, TO BE ARRESTED FOR HAVING CHALLENGED A CORRUPT, RIGGED, AND STOLEN ELECTION. IT IS A GREAT HONOR BECAUSE I AM BEING ARRESTED FOR YOU. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Trump then went on to write:
“I NEED ONE MORE INDICTMENT TO ENSURE MY ELECTION.”
Trump, who is scheduled to be arraigned for the third time this year, has been using the indictment to boost his presidential campaign.
He has called it the “final battle and urged his followers to join him, saying, “With you by my side we will demolish the deep state.”
At one point, his presidential campaign compared the indictment to Nazi Germany, writing on Truth Social:
“The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes.”
Meanwhile, a slew of Republicans and rightwing media networks have been flocking to Trump’s defense in an attempt to undermine the case.
Fox News’s Jesse Watters called the indictment “political germ warfare” and “political war crimes.” Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene condemned the indictment as a “political assassination.” An editor at Blaze, a far-right outlet went as far as urging the Republican-led House to force a government shutdown.
Updated
John Lauro, one of Donald Trump’s attorney, told NPR that his focus is to attain a “just trial” over a “speedy trial.”
In a new interview released on Wednesday with NPR, Lauro responded to a question on whether he’d have any objection to try and bring the case to trial before the November 2024 election.
Lauro said:
“Speedy trial rights belong to the defense, not the government. The government has an obligation to turn over a lot of material and a lot of information, which they’ve not done yet, but they will. You know, the special counsel has, or the Biden Justice Department, has been investigating this case for three and a half years.
And it just seems to me, in fairness, that we should have enough time to study the documents, be able to interview witnesses and look at the evidence in its totality, address a lot of legal issues with the judge as well.
So what we want is a just trial, not simply a speedy trial. There’s no need to railroad any defendant in the United States. And we’re hoping the justice department will recognize that justice is more important than speed.”
Joe Biden tells CNN he will not follow Donald Trump arraignment
President Joe Biden will not follow the arraignment of Donald Trump this afternoon at federal court in Washington DC, CNN reports.
Biden, who was cycling in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Thursday told a CNN reporter “No” in response to whether he will follow the arraignment at 4pm ET today.
Biden has yet to comment on the indictment since it was unveiled earlier this week.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has released a video of him outside the federal court where Donald Trump is set to be arraigned today, urging the Biden administration to “tell us the truth” behind the indictment.
“I’m here at the courthouse where Trump will be arraigned later today & I’m making a demand to our government: tell us the truth about what’s really driving this flurry of prosecutions, with trial dates set during the height of the upcoming election,” said the millionaire entrepreneur.
That’s why I sued the DOJ this week to tell us exactly what Biden told Garland & what Garland told Jack Smith about the Trump indictments.
He went on to say that he filed a FOIA request to the justice department to “understand what president Biden told Jack Smith, to understand what Merrick Garland told Jack Smith.”
The reason the people don’t trust the government is that the government doesn’t trust the people. I’m here at the courthouse where Trump will be arraigned later today & I’m making a demand to our government: tell us the truth about what’s really driving this flurry of… pic.twitter.com/Ro6SRzy7qC
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 3, 2023
Tulsi Gabbard, a former Congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate, has also hit back against Donald Trump’s indictment and criticized Joe Biden’s presidency.
“Trump indictment is Biden Admin’s latest tyrannical tactic to distract and drain resources from his main political adversary. So now anyone who criticizes how govt runs an election is a criminal? Dem elite are destroying our democracy/country,” Gabbard tweeted.
She went on to say:
“This is yet another example of president Joe Biden’s politicized department of justice is willing to go to try to destroy is main political opponent as the presidential election is going on.
This foundational purpose of what the Biden administration is doing is really the thing that should be concerning to everyone.”
Newest Trump indictment is Biden Admin's latest tyrannical tactic to distract and drain resources from his main political adversary. So now anyone who criticizes how govt runs an election is a criminal? Dem elite are destroying our democracy/country. pic.twitter.com/zE8qOQWwNm
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) August 3, 2023
Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has called the indictment against Donald Trump a “political assassination.”
Greene, a staunch Trump ally, tweeted on Thursday:
“Today’s indictment of President Trump is a political assassination attempt by Joe Biden and his henchmen to remove the leading presidential candidate from the ballot in 2024.”
“The American people will reelect President Trump! #Trump2024,” she added.
Today’s indictment of President Trump is a political assassination attempt by Joe Biden and his henchmen to remove the leading presidential candidate from the ballot in 2024.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) August 3, 2023
The American people will reelect President Trump! #Trump2024 pic.twitter.com/jzPCpBiPZb
Mike Pence has hit back at the “gaggle of crackpot lawyers” that worked with Donald Trump to allegedly attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reports:
Trump was charged with four felonies this week over his attempts to meddle with the presidential election. The 45-page indictment shows that Pence was a crucial figure in Jack Smith, the special counsel, being able to bring those charges.
“Contemporaneous notes” taken by Pence, and referred to in the indictment, document how Trump and his advisors pressured Pence to reject the certification of the election in January, which could have resulted in the House of Representatives handing Trump a second-term in office.
On Wednesday, as Trump and his legal team attempted to downplay those efforts – one of Trump’s lawyers suggested that they only asked Pence to do “pause the voting” on January 6 – the usually meek Pence reacted angrily.
“Let’s be clear on this point. It wasn’t just that they asked for a pause,” he told Fox News.
“The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me, to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives, and literally chaos would have ensued.”
For the full story, click here:
Donald Trump has vowed to get his revenge on Joe Biden and his attorney general for charging him “with as many crimes as can be concocted”.
Posting on Truth Social, the former president wrote:
Look, it’s not my fault that my political opponent in the Democrat Party, Crooked Joe Biden, has told his Attorney General to charge the leading (by far!) Republican Nominee & former President of the United States, me, with as many crimes as can be concocted so that he is forced to spend large amounts of time & money to defend himself. The Dems don’t want to run against me or they would not be doing this unprecedented weaponization of “Justice.” BUT SOON, IN 2024, IT WILL BE OUR TURN. MAGA!
US Marshals have been seen inside the federal courthouse where Donald Trump is to due to appear later today.
A group of heavily armed men, including members of the service’s special operations unit, were seen arriving inside the court with tactical gear and rifles, CNN reported.
A bomb-sniffing dog, a black lab named Legend, was also seen on patrol, as well as Secret Service agents patrolling inside the building.
From NBC’s Ryan J Reilly:
A whole crew of U.S. Marshals with extensive gear just walked into the Prettyman courthouse and went in the elevators. (No photos are allowed inside the courthouse.)
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 3, 2023
Read the full indictment against Trump in 2020 election interference inquiry
Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the latest criminal case before the former president that comes just weeks after he was charged with retaining national defense information.
You can read the indictment here in full:
Updated
Biotech entrepeneur and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appeared outside the federal courthouse in Washington in an attempt to boost his visibility.
In a video posted to Twitter, Ramaswamy questioned why Trump has been indicted in three “supposedly independent prosecutions” in the midst of a presidential election. “The government does not trust the people to select their leaders,” he said.
The reason the people don’t trust the government is that the government doesn’t trust the people. I’m here at the courthouse where Trump will be arraigned later today & I’m making a demand to our government: tell us the truth about what’s really driving this flurry of… pic.twitter.com/Ro6SRzy7qC
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 3, 2023
Trump will not be formally arrested or have mugshot taken in court
When Donald Trump appears at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, DC this afternoon to answer the indictment brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, he will not be formally arrested or have his mugshot taken.
The former president will undergo digital fingerprinting as part of the booking process at the federal courthouse, and will be required to provide his social security number, date of birth, address, and other personal information, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing US Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade.
Trump will not have his photograph taken during his processing, “since he’s already easily recognizable and there are already many photographs available”.
He will also not be placed under arrest, according to Wade. In accepting the indictment on Tuesday, US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya issued a summons for his appearance, not an arrest warrant.
Updated
For those involved with the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment brought a collective sigh of relief, according to a Washington Post report.
For them, the indictment served as the start of a final stage of accountability for Donald Trump and his allies that the committee long sought, but also as a validation of the group’s work, the paper wrote, citing sources.
The indictment also elevated their findings outside of the political arena, where their work was subject to constant allegations of partisanship, bringing the credibility of the criminal justice system.
Retired group chats were revived and calls placed to old colleagues as lawmakers and investigators absorbed the news.
Tim Heaphy, the lead investigator for the committee, told the paper:
As I read the indictment, it really struck me how closely it hews to our structure and our findings. Facts are what matters. And lawyers get too much credit for facts. We gathered really important facts because a lot of people came forward and gave us those facts. Those same facts are leading to a criminal indictment of the former president.
Updated
The indictment comes more than two years after a group of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. The January 6 attack, which has already resulted in more than 1,000 arrests, caused the deaths of seven people, a bipartisan Senate report found.
Despite the deadly consequences of the Capitol insurrection, past efforts to hold Trump accountable for the violence and his broader election subversion campaign have fallen short. The House voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection, but he was acquitted by the Senate. The House then passed a bill calling for the formation of an independent commission to investigate the Capitol attack, but that proposal also failed in the Senate.
House Democrats instead created a select committee to examine the origins and impact of the January 6 insurrection, and the panel held a series of hearings that painted a damning picture of a president hellbent on remaining in office even after it became clear he had fairly lost his bid for reelection. The select committee ultimately voted to refer Trump to the justice department for criminal prosecution, but the panel itself could not advance charges against the former president.
Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor and now counsel at the nonpartisan nonprofit Protect Democracy, said:
The select committee did an outstanding job of presenting a lot of evidence that they gleaned from their interviews with people who essentially were willing to cooperate, but criminal investigators and prosecutors have the ability to subpoena people.
Unlike Donald Trump’s first two indictments, the former president’s third set of criminal charges stands out as the first major legal effort to hold him accountable for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Pro-democracy experts welcomed the indictment as a victory for the rule of law that could help fortify America’s election systems in the face of ongoing threats from Trump and his allies.
The indictment charges Trump with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights in his relentless pursuit to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election and remain in office.
“This is one of the worst things any American president has ever done,” said Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law.
The magnitude of the indictment matches the magnitude of what Trump tried to do, which is to overthrow the constitutional system to stay in office.
The significance of the indictments extends beyond accountability, Parker argued. As Trump and his allies continue to spread lies about rampant voter fraud and threaten the foundation of America’s system of government, the recently announced criminal charges could send a chilling message to anyone else considering similar anti-democratic efforts in the future.
“We have been kind of living under a question mark ever since the events of January 6, and that question mark has been: are we as a country going to be able to hold this person accountable, even though he was the 45th president of the United States?” Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor and now counsel at the nonpartisan nonprofit Protect Democracy, said.
If you let a person like that walk away without any kind of accountability, then the chances of something like what we saw on January 6 happening again are extremely high.
Here are some key takeaways from the latest indictment:
Trump faces four charges
The former president is accused of conspiring to defraud the United States government, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiring against rights, and obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
In the 45-page indictment, prosecutors laid out their case in stark detail, alleging Trump knowingly spread false allegations about fraud, convened false slates of electors and attempted to block the certification of the election on January 6.
The former president was ‘determined to remain in power’
Federal prosecutors said Trump was “determined to remain in power”. Prosecutors said that for two months after his election loss, Trump spread lies to create an “intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger” and “erode public faith in the administration of the election”. They cited an example in Georgia, where Trump claimed more than 10,000 dead people voted in four days even after the state’s top elections official told him that was not true.
There are six un-indicted co-conspirators
The indictment included six un-indicted co-conspirators as part of Smith’s inquiry, including four unnamed attorneys who allegedly aided Trump in his effort to subvert the 2020 election results, as well as an unnamed justice department official and an unnamed political consultant.
While unnamed in the document, the details in the indictment indicate that those people include Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Ken Chesebro as well as the former US justice department official Jeff Clark.
The special counsel wants a speedy trial
It’s unclear yet when the case will go to trial, but special counsel Jack Smith said his office will seek speedy proceedings. Smith said in a press conference on Tuesday:
I must emphasize that the indictment is only an allegation and that the defendant must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, in a court of law.
Indictments won’t disqualify Trump from office
Trump’s indictments will not bar him from seeking the presidency again, nor will any conviction. However, if he’s convicted, there would likely be lawsuits seeking to disqualify him from the ballot under the 14th amendment, which bars those who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office. But Congress could override that disqualification in the 14th amendment by two-thirds vote.
The indictment follows a path laid by the House January 6 committee
The congressional panel, which was created to investigate the insurrection, concluded last December recommending criminal charges. Over the course of the investigation, the committee conducted more than 1,000 interviews, collected more than a million documents and interviewed key witnesses. In public hearings, some held at prime time, investigators aired dramatic and damning footage, making the case that Trump “was directly responsible for summoning what became a violent mob” despite understanding that he had lost the election.
The justice department received what the committee had uncovered, but conducted its own interviews and used its authority to gain key evidence that wasn’t easily accessible to Congress.
The final charges against Trump include ones that the committee had recommended, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Members of the media and public are lining up outside the federal courthouse in Washington, where Donald Trump is expected to appear at 4pm Eastern time (9pm BST).
The chief of the Capitol Police told reporters on Wednesday that the force is “prepared for whatever might happen”. He said there is “security plan in place” but declined to go into specifics.
Trump 'knew well he had lost the election', says William Barr
Donald Trump’s former attorney general William Bar said he believes Trump “knew well he lost the election” and that special counsel Jack Smith has more evidence to prove that the former president knew the 2020 election was not stolen.
Barr, who resigned as Trump’s attorney general weeks after the election in December 2020, told CNN:
At first I wasn’t sure, but I have come to believe he knew well he had lost the election.
He went on to say that the four charges Trump is accused of in the latest indictment are just the “tip of the iceberg” and that Smith has “a lot more evidence” against him.
I think there is a lot more to come, and I think they have a lot more evidence as to President Trump’s state of mind.
“It would not come out very well for him” if Trump took the stand on that defense, Barr said, adding that he doubted if the former president “remembers all the different versions of events he has given over the last few years.”
Updated
Good morning from Washington DC. Thursday’s arraignment follows the release of a 45-page indictment that alleges that Donald Trump repeated false claims of election fraud, despite repeated warnings from multiple people in his circle, including senior leaders in the Department of Justice and senior attorneys who had been appointed by Trump, and the former vice-president Mike Pence, who told him “he had seen no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud”.
The indictment describes a conspiracy which, at its core, involves Trump and his co-conspirators allegedly trying to dupe Pence into falsely suggesting the outcome of the 2020 election had been in doubt.
To do so, prosecutors say Trump tried to use the Department of Justice to open “sham election fraud investigations” and repeatedly tried to co-opt Pence into rejecting electoral college votes for Joe Biden in an effort to stop his election win being certified.
When that failed, the indictment says, Trump tried to block the certification and exploited the January 6 Capitol attack by trying to push false claims of election fraud and to convince members of Congress to continue to delay the certification.
The indictment also listed six co-conspirators who were not charged in the indictment. While they were unnamed, the descriptions of five of the six matched those of the Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Ken Chesebro as well as the former US justice department official Jeff Clark.
This is Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the blog in Washington. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com
Updated
My colleague in New York, Sam Levine, has put together this useful guide to some of the possible scenarios and outcomes from this criminal legal action against Donald Trump. He addresses some of the key unknowns, like for example “If convicted, can Trump be blocked from holding office?”, “What happens if Trump goes on trial during the presidential primaries?” and “could Trump theoretically pardon himself if he goes on to win the Republican nomination and then the election?”
Trump calls for trial to be moved out of Washington as signs of defense strategy emerge
Donald Trump has used his Truth Social platform to issue an early morning screed to call for a change of venue in the trial.
Labelling it a “fake ‘case’” which has been “brought by crooked Joe Biden and deranged Jack Smith”, Trump suggested “politically unbiased” West Virginia as a venue, arguing it is impossible for him to get a fair trial in Washington, which he described as “95% anti-Trump”.
The message suggests that anybody who thought Trump might temper his language, in light of the charges he faces, was misguided.
Updated
In the Washington Post this morning, one lawyer is quoted suggesting that the case could hinge on whether the prosecution can prove what is going on inside Donald Trump’s mind. It quotes Robert Kelner, who it describes as a veteran DC lawyer, saying:
I think the entire indictment really turns on the question of Trump’s intent. Arguably, there isn’t any smoking-gun evidence in the indictment regarding intent, though there is certainly circumstantial evidence. At the heart of the case is really a metaphysical question of whether it’s even possible for Donald Trump to believe that he lost the election, or lost anything else, for that matter.
[Special Counsel Jack] Smith needs to show that all of the false statements Trump made about the election, which the indictment chronicles in great detail, were understood by Trump to be false; otherwise, it becomes a case about political speech and first amendment rights.
There is a decades-old question about whether, in the privacy of his own office or bedroom, Donald Trump admits to things that he doesn’t admit publicly or whether, even when he’s staring at himself in the bathroom mirror shaving, he’s telling himself the same lies that he tells the rest of us. I don’t think we know the answer. It may be an unanswerable question.
In his response to the indictment on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s statement described it as a “pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election”.
“Biden Crime Family” has become the latest epithet that Donald Trump drops into his statements in the hope that it will be picked up and amplified by his followers.
The former president has a knack for pithy phrases and nicknames which become shortcuts and memes for his fans – think rallies chanting “Lock her up” about opponent “Crooked Hillary” Clinton in the 2016 election or Trump dubbing his opponent “sleepy Joe” in 2020.
It isn’t just those in the Democratic party who have been on the receiving end. He has labelled his Florida governor opponent for the 2024 nomination “Ron DeSanctimonious” and Ted Cruz earned the Trump name “Lyin’ Ted”.
“Biden Crime Family” isn’t an original Trump phrase though, but one that has been floating around Republican circles for some time. In fact only a week ago Jill Biden’s first husband was using the phrase in a New York Post interview about his experience of dealing with the president and his wife after the split.
The “crime family” name derives from a continued Republican fascination with the legal worries of Biden’s son Hunter, who has pleaded not guilty to tax and gun charges. Overseas dealings involving the Biden family have been subject to a House Oversight Committee investigation, which is yet to report any wrongdoing.
In the minutes after the Trump indictment was filed in federal district court in Washington, conservative commentators rapidly scrambled to his defense. Rightwing pundits lined up to compare the charges to “criminalizing thoughts” and the dropping of “fifteen dozen” atomic bombs – and that was just on Fox News.
Rightwing TV channel Newsmax, which has drained some of Fox News’s audience in recent months, brought on Rudy Giuliani, an unnamed co-conspirator in Tuesday’s indictment, who railed for seven minutes about Hillary Clinton’s emails and Biden being a “crooked president”.
In America’s rightwing media ecosystem it was a largely united front. News outlets repeatedly pressed the idea that Trump’s free speech was being criminalized: that the former president had done nothing more than talk about the election being stolen.
The effort, perhaps deliberately, ignored prosecutors’ allegations that Trump had convened false slates of electors and attempted to block the certification of the election on 6 January.
One America News Network pivoted to Hunter Biden – always a source of interest among right-wing news – with an OANN correspondent pushing an emerging conspiracy theory that the Trump indictment was timed to coincide with Biden Jr’s tax charges trial.
Elsewhere, a senior editor of the Blaze website suggested that the Republican-led House should force a government shutdown – which could see about 800,000 federal employees furloughed or forced to work without pay – in the hope that the case against Trump would collapse.
Perhaps the most berserk take, however, was the one pushed by Trump’s own campaign.
“The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” the campaign posted to Truth Social.
On a day when the rightwing media seemed willing to do and say anything to defend their man, none of them was willing to go as far as that.
Who is Jack Smith: profile of special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump
Maya Yang has written this profile of Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump:
Smith, a 54-year-old veteran prosecutor appointed as special counsel by the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in November 2022, has now brought two indictments against Trump, the first one surrounding Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents that were discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Before his appointment as special counsel in the Trump investigations, Smith was the specialist prosecutor at The Hague’s Kosovo specialist chambers where he investigated war crimes from 1998 to 2000 during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia.
Smith, a registered independent and graduate of Harvard law school, began his three-decade career as a prosecutor in 1994 at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Five years later, Smith began working as an assistant attorney at the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York. Up until 2008, Smith supervised approximately 100 criminal prosecutors who handled cases involving terrorism, civil rights violations and financial fraud.
From 2010 to 2015, Smith headed the justice department’s public integrity section which was established following the Watergate scandal and oversees the investigation and prosecution of federal crimes affecting government integrity such as bribery of public officials and election crimes.
In 2015, Smith went on to serve as the first assistant US attorney for the middle district of Tennessee before taking over as acting US attorney two years later in 2017. In 2018, Smith was appointed specialist prosecutor at the Kosovo specialist chambers.
Updated
January 6 indictment more serious because 'most of country watched it unfold on TV', says Republican strategist
The Hill this morning has a quote from a Republican strategist who suggest that today’s court appearance could be more significant for Donald Trump’s election chances than the others, because the public are more aware of what took place on 6 January 2021.
It quotes Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former member of the House Republican leadership, saying “It’s politically more salient because of 6 January. The whole country knows what happens on 6 January. Most of the country watched it unfold on television. Whereas the Mar-a-Lago [documents case], while it may be very serious, it’s not something the average person pays a lot of attention to.”
Updated
Politicial observers are not just watching the criminal proceedings against former president Donald Trump, but also the reaction of the Republican party to them.
This morning AP congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro has looked at the contrast between Mitch McConnell’s words at the time of the 6 January uprising and subsequent impeachment, and what he is – or rather isn’t – saying now.
At a rally last weekend, Trump argued he was exercising his right to free speech as he challenged the 2020 election results. In the indictment, the prosecution acknowledges Trump had a right to challenge the results. But, crucially, it said Trump repeated his knowingly false claims to give them legitimacy and “create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”
At the time, Mascaro notes, McConnell put it similarly.
“The issue is not only the President’s intemperate language on 6 January” McConnell said ahead of the Senate vote to acquit Trump of the impeachment charge of insurrection.
“It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths – myths – about a reverse landslide election that was somehow being stolen in some secret coup.”
McConnell said, “The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things.”
And when Senate leader McConnell rose to announce his vote to acquit Donald Trump of impeachment charges, the Republican assured the public the former president would have his day in court.
“He didn’t get away with anything yet – yet,” McConnell vowed. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.”
This week, as Trump prepares to face potential consequences from the criminal justice system, McConnell has remained silent.
Our First Thing newsletter has just been published, and here is how my colleague Nicola Slawson teed up the day, writing:
Trump is expected to make his first appearance in the case in person, according to people briefed on the matter, and to travel for the arraignment from his Bedminster club in New Jersey to Washington with his lawyers and several top campaign staffers.
The initial appearance from Trump to enter a plea formally starts the months-long pretrial process that will run into the timetable for his other criminal trials next year and the 2024 presidential race, where Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
The US constitution does not bar those convicted of a crime from running for president. There could be a pathway to blocking him, however, through the constitution’s 14th amendment. That provision says someone cannot hold office if they have taken an oath to the US, as Trump did when he was inaugurated, and engage in “insurrection or rebellion” against the country.
If Trump takes office while the charges are still pending against him, he’s likely to move to quickly get rid of the charges. He would almost certainly appoint an attorney general who would fire the special counsel Jack Smith. If he has already been convicted, Trump could theoretically pardon himself, an untested legal idea.
You can sign up to First Thing: the Guardian’s US morning briefing here.
We are a good few hours away yet from Trump’s court appearance, but preparations are well under way, with security barriers being put out in
Authorities are expecting both Trump supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators to appear outside the E Barrett Prettyman US Courthouse today.
This is a handy little timeline too of how the charges and court appearances for Donald Trump are unfolding ahead of next year’s election.
Updated
Twice impeached, twice arrested and now indicted three times. Donald Trump faces serious charges in New York and Florida over a hush-money scheme during the 2016 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents, as well as today’s court appearance over his attempt to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.
As Trump prepares for those cases to go to trial, the former president is simultaneously reeling from a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation toward writer E Jean Carroll. And more criminal charges could be on the way for Trump in Georgia.
My colleagues Joan E Greve and Andrew Witherspoon have produced this guide to all of Trump’s legal woes.
Here is a reminder of the charges Donald Trump is facing today. He has been indicted on four charges:
Conspiracy to defraud the US
Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
Conspiracy against rights
You can read the full indictment here. It opens:
Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on 3 November, 2020, the Defendent spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false.
Donald Trump’s third appearance in a courtroom as a criminal defendant is expected at 4pm Eastern time
Good morning. It is around 6am in Washington DC, where today we expect to see the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, in court.
The former president is accused of conspiring to defraud the United States government, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiring against rights, and obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. Here is what we know and what we are expecting:
Trump’s third appearance in a courtroom as a criminal defendant is expected at 4pm Eastern time (9pm BST).
Prosecutors in Washington will outline the four conspiracy and obstruction counts and a judge will set bail conditions.
The magistrate judge, Moxila Upadhyaya, will set a schedule for pre-trial motions and discovery.
Both sides are likely later to file motions seeking to shape what evidence and legal arguments will be permitted at trial, which could be many months away.
In a possible preview of Trump’s defence, his lawyer John Lauro called the indictment “an attack on free speech and political advocacy”, implying Trump’s lies about election fraud were protected under the constitutional right to freedom of expression.
This is Martin Belam in London. I’ll be covering the build-up to Donald Trump’s court appearance for the next couple of hours before handing over to my colleagues in the US. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
