It was his third arraignment since April — a unprecedented sequence for a nation during which no different president or former president had ever been indicted till Trump was indicted in three circumstances this 12 months. As he mounts a bid to return to the White House, those three prosecutions search to maintain him criminally culpable for a wide range of actions he undertook each throughout and after his presidency.
In addition to the most recent case accusing him of in search of to overturn the 2020 election, Smith’s crew has additionally charged him in Florida with hoarding categorized paperwork after he left the White House. And New York City prosecutors have charged him with falsifying enterprise data in reference to hush cash funds to a porn star.
Trump might quickly face one more prison case in Fulton County, Ga., the place District Attorney Fani Willis expects to announce charges this month in her investigation into election interference in that state.
Trump’s motorcade arrived on the courthouse round 3:15 p.m. Thursday after he flew to Washington from his golf membership in Bedminster, N.J. Trump, carrying a darkish blue go well with and a purple tie, was processed as a prison defendant after which entered his not guilty plea in a wood-paneled courtroom earlier than Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya.
Although Upadhyaya presided over the arraignment, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has been assigned to deal with the case and can probably preside over most future court docket appearances.
Trump criticized Chutkan in a social media publish a number of hours earlier than he got here to court docket on Thursday, calling her “unfair.” Chutkan, an Obama appointee, ruled against Trump in 2021 when she allowed the House Jan. 6 choose committee to entry Trump’s White House data. Much of the proof in these data has now resurfaced within the new indictment.
The 4 charges he faces are: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to deprive Americans of the precise to a good election course of, conspiracy to impede Congress’ proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021, and finishing up that obstruction effort.