Trump pleads not guilty to the great electoral hoax while trying to extend the process until after 2024

Donald Trump is getting practice in appearing before a judge. This Thursday he has returned to the courts for the third time in four months and, this time without resorting to a lawyer to do it for him, he has declared himself “not guilty” in the most delicate case of the three that He has them pending for the moment — an attempt to alter the results of the 2020 elections — and in the most symbolic place possible: in the federal courthouse in Washington. In full view of the Capitol where American democracy experienced its darkest hour on January 6, 2021: the assault by a horde of supporters of the former president convinced, after months of hoaxes uttered by the head of state and his associates, that the real The winner of those elections had been the Republican.

The former president appeared before Judge Moxila Upadyaha to confirm information such as his name and age (77 years) and, with the pout that is part of his brand image, he listened with crossed arms as the four charges were read against him. Special Counsel Jack Smith charges: conspiracy to defraud the US government, obstruction of legal proceeding, witness tampering, and conspiracy to violate civil rights.

She reminded him that the charges can get him up to 50 years in prison. When the judge asked her to rule on the charges, she stood up and, without resorting to the microphone, simply projecting her voice into a room where silence was cut with a knife, she replied “Not guilty” (“Not guilty”). A few yards away, Smith was looking at him impassively.

The former president and current candidate to return to the White House immediately set out for the airport after approving his bail conditions and finishing the hearing. The magistrate has given the US government seven days to deliver a report on the possible duration of the trial.

The first person interested in delaying his series of trials until after the 2024 elections is Trump himself, for whom each subpoena, each appearance before a judge, represents a new boost in the polls about the race for the White House. The former president has opted for a strategy in which he presents himself as a victim of a politicized judicial system, in which the powers that be align themselves against him to prevent the return of the populist leader. His idea is basically to get the public votes to amend the case for prosecutors and judges. The former president has insinuated that, if he wins the elections in 2024, he would proclaim a self-pardon that would put an end to all pending cases against him.

From the airport, immediately before taking off, he insisted on describing himself as a victim: “today is a very sad day for the United States… something like today should never have happened,” he assured. “It is a persecution against the person who is leading the Republican race,” he insisted.

His tactic is working for him, at least for now. The polls show a technical tie between him and the president, Democrat Joe Biden. And they place him at an astral distance, of more than 30 percentage points, over his immediate Republican rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Even his false allegations that there was fraud in the 2020 election now enjoy greater credibility among Republican voters: Six percentage points more than in January they consider it true that there was fraud.

The next hearing will take place, as established by the magistrate, on August 28. The case now passes into the hands of another judge, Tanya Chutkan, who has previously been characterized by her harshness in other cases related to the riot of January 6, 2021 and the great electoral hoax.

The declaration of innocence did not come as a surprise. Trump categorically denies having committed any type of wrongdoing, in this case and in the two that he also has underway: in New York, where he is accused of accounting falsification in relation to paying a porn actress to buy her silence about an alleged relationship and in Miami, where Smith holds him responsible for crimes against espionage law for illegally keeping classified material in his possession after his departure from the White House.

Formal arrest and fingerprinting

The former president had left his private golf club in Bedmister, New York, just a couple of hours earlier, to travel to Washington on his private plane. He was scheduled for 4:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time). But he arrived early at the court in a convoy of vehicles, as has happened in his previous summonses, and immediately went to a procedure that he is beginning to know well: his formal arrest and fingerprinting, the step prior to the preliminary hearing presided over by by Upadyaha on the second floor of the courthouse.

In filing his charge sheet on Tuesday, special counsel Smith had indicated he would seek a speedy trial, a promise he has also made in the classified papers case. But it is not clear that he can achieve it in an unprecedented case: never before has a former US president sat in the dock. It is a case that affects the most basic values ​​of the American political system, democracy and the rule of law. And that forces him to make an examination of conscience: how was it possible that that fateful act took place, that assault on the Capitol? And how was it possible for a head of state to denounce —and continue to denounce after his departure— a non-existent fraud in an election without the hoax being nipped in the bud?

“What we want is a fair trial, not just a speedy trial,” one of Trump’s lawyers, John Lauro, declared Thursday in an interview with NPR public radio. “There is no need to rush a defendant in the United States. And we hope that the Department of Justice recognizes that fairness is more important than speed.”

Lauro has pointed out that months of preparation will be necessary for the trial of a cause that has required almost three years of investigation, given the questions about whether the process could be seen before the November elections of next year. “We are going to litigate a case of unprecedented magnitude. I have been involved in many cases over many years, over 40 in office, and this is going to be one of the biggest in American history,” he maintained. The idea of ​​a quick process is “absurd”, he has ruled out.

Washington is Comanche territory for Trump. In 2020, 92% of the city’s voters supported Biden; only 4% leaned Republican. The city’s distaste for him, evident throughout the tycoon’s four years in the White House, was on display again this Thursday.

During the night, the police had put up fences and barriers to block traffic around the courthouse. Large numbers of vehicles and agents from the Secret Service—the body tasked with protecting presidents—and local police patrolled the area in anticipation of riots. But in front of the courthouse, the only hordes that could be seen on this occasion were the dozens of journalists crowded together since early in the morning. The supporters of the former president who had come to support him in previous summonses in New York and Miami were conspicuous this time by his almost complete absence. In one corner, a man in a red Trump cap thanked prosecutor Jack Smith for “free publicity”; in another, a group of African-Americans waved signs in defense of the former president.

The protesters demanding the imprisonment of the Republican candidate were more numerous: on one side, a figure of a giant crying baby Trump before the perspective of the prison. In front of the main entrance, Dominic Santana repeated the appearance that he had already starred in Miami and, dressed as a prisoner, he held a large photograph of the defendant, without hair and in the orange uniform of the convicts, to demand “that they lock him up.” Further on, a group chanted that “no one is above the law.”

Washington, hostile terrain

The heartbreak between Washington and Trump is mutual. The former president and his legal team consider that the US capital is hostile terrain, which is why they believe that their chances of a fair trial are reduced, and have proposed instead that the case be taken to West Virginia, a nearby state and where the former president he scored two thirds of the total votes in the elections three years ago. “Unfair place, unfair judge”, the tycoon has pointed out on his social network, Truth.

Before the trial itself, it is likely that there will be several pre-trials to settle procedural issues. From the type of evidence that may be admissible, to the witnesses that are going to be summoned, among other issues. The trial itself will also be lengthy: numerous witnesses are expected to appear, including former Vice President Mike Pence — whose testimony is one of the bases for the charge sheet — and possibly at least some of the six people named in the indictment, without name, as Trump’s co-conspirators.

The trial may end up sparking an important debate about the first amendment to the US Constitution, which defends freedom of expression. Special counsel Smith bases his allegations against Trump largely on the former president’s own statements, who publicly assured that he was the true winner of the election. The Republican’s lawyers believe that this is the opinion of the then president, protected by the amendment. The key may be to show that the tycoon knew that he had been defeated and was lying in the hope of reversing the result and continuing in power.

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