Washington. Donald Trump turned himself in yesterday to the federal authorities in this capital to be arrested and before entering a court in front of a magistrate judge, he heard the criminal accusation against him and pleaded “not guilty” to four charges related to the alleged attempts to reverse the 2020 election, violating voter rights, but his lawyers and allies have made it clear that they are betting more on what happens in the political arena than what the former president faces in the judicial arena.
This is the third criminal charge against the former president in the last four months – no other former US president has ever faced criminal charges – but it is by far the most serious: all four charges are conspiracy to violate protected civil rights by law, conspiracy to defraud the government, obstruction of official process, and conspiracies to obstruct official process.
His first court date in this federal criminal case was overseen by Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, but the trial will be conducted by federal district attorney Tanya Chutkan, a former public defender randomly selected as part of the normal process for appointing available judges to causes in this part of the country.
According to court reports, Upadhyaya began the proceedings by requesting the defendant’s full name and then asking him if he had taken any medication that might prevent him from understanding this legal process. “No, your honor,” Trump responded.
The lawyer informed the defendant of his legal rights and read him the criminal charges in the indictment, noting that one of the crimes charged carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The judge then asked the former president how he pleaded to these charges. “Not guilty,” she replied.
As in the other two criminal cases, federal prosecutors allowed the defendant to be released without bail (as a former president he is protected 24 hours a day by the Secret Service), but argued for an expedited trial.
Trump’s defense attorney in this case, John Lauro, asked the judge to deny the request for an expedited process given the seriousness of the charges and the need to prepare the defense. The judge limited herself to saying that she will take the defense argument into account, but did not offer a decision.
He concluded the proceedings by scheduling a next pre-trial hearing in this case for August 28, 2023, although he indicated that Trump did not need to appear in person at that hearing.
Other appearances
Trump’s lawyers will be very busy in the coming weeks. On August 24, they appear in another federal court in Florida, in the criminal case against their client for the illegal handling and concealment of secret official documents, and they must return to Washington four days later for the next hearing in the case that began yesterday, while the former president faces a local trial in New York – a total of 78 criminal charges in these three cases and the announcement of a fourth criminal indictment on various charges is expected in Georgia, for attempting to subvert the 2020 election results in that state.
In front of the federal court in Washington, yesterday afternoon there was a peaceful media festival, small groups of anti-Trump protesters and also a small group of supporters and fans of the former president, all surrounded by security from various public forces from the Service Secret, the security officers of the court, the municipal police and the federal police of the Capitol. Several cargo trucks surrounded the federal court building and armed police officers guarded public spaces.
Banners reading everything from “Jail him” to “Blacks for Trump” were displayed by protesters along with individuals wearing Trump masks in prison clothes or banners proclaiming that the former president will return to the White House in the next election or “by 2024.”
Trump left the courthouse and immediately returned to the airport. “This is a sad day for the United States,” he told reporters waiting for him before boarding his private plane.
“This is the persecution of a political opponent. It should never happen in the United States.” He claimed, without giving sources or proof, that he has a huge lead against Joe Biden in the polls and reiterated that this is all part of an attempt to prevent him from winning the presidency. “If you can’t beat him, you chase him or control him,” he said.
His lawyer Lauro, in interviews with the US media, argued that this is a case of freedom of expression.
The president, he recently said, “has every right to advocate a position in which he believed (that there was fraud that led to his defeat) and that his supporters believed the same.” He added that “it is the first time in national history that a presidency is criminalizing free expression against a previous presidency. These are arguments that will be offered in detail during the trial.”
Check the conspiracy
Federal prosecutors, in the indictment, make it clear that Trump continued to promote false accounts of the election even though he knew he had lost, having been informed by various agencies and officials about it. They point out that at one point, when the former president was unsuccessfully trying to convince his then Vice President Mike Pence to do what was necessary to prevent the certification of the vote, a frustrated Trump told him: “you are too honest.”
Furthermore, the center of the case is not about whether Trump claimed to have won the 2020 election, but whether he conspired with others to organize recounts in battleground states to cast doubt on the election and whether he pressured others, including the secretary of state. of Georgia and Pence to find ways to nullify the election, all of which is difficult, perhaps impossible, to justify.
For this reason, the best defense for the former president is not in court, but in the political struggle surrounding the 2024 presidential elections. In a message on social media, Trump declared that being accused “is a great honor because they are arrested for you” ––repeating his strategy of proclaiming himself the savior of the United States. By maintaining his position as the country’s dominant Republican, several of the leading Republican candidates have already said that if elected they will grant Trump a presidential pardon – presidents have an unlimited right to pardon criminals in this country. And Trump himself has hinted that he might contemplate a “self-pardon” if he returns to the White House. (About the accusation:
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges accusing him of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss – his third plea of not guilty since April. Via Graphic News.
