America is bracing for another historic day as former president Donald Trump will be arrested for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election as part of a desperate bid to defy the will of voters and remain at the head of US government.
Thirty-one months after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to try to stop the certification of the 2020 election, Mr Trump is heading to a courthouse nearby to face criminal charges.
He is scheduled to appear at E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington DC on Thursday afternoon where he is expected to plead not guilty to all charges.
The former president was indicted on four federal charges on Tuesday following an investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
This marks his third criminal indictment and second federal indictment as his legal troubles continue to mount at a time when he is pursuing his third run at the White House.
Here’s how the day unfolded
Trump headed to Washington DC
Although the ex-president was given the option to appear for his arraignment virtually, he confirmed to followers on Truth Social he would be attending in person.
Mr Trump departed from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Thursday afternoon and headed to Newark Liberty International Airport where he boarded a flight to Washington DC.
The flight, which is a roughly hour-and-a-half, landed in DC 3.30pm ET.
From there, the former president headed to the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse for his scheduled arraignment at 4pm ET.
Arrest, fingerprints, mugshot?
Mr Trump will likely surrender to authorities at the DC courthouse shortly before his scheduled arraignment time.
Once there, he will be processed and likely fingerprinted. Like his previous arrests, Mr Trump is not expected to have his mugshot taken or be placed in handcuffs.
He will then appear for his arraignment before Magistrate Judge Moxila A Upadhyaya where he is expected to plead not guilty to the charges.
Post-arraignment plans
Following his first criminal indictment, Mr Trump gave a live primetime address from his Mar-a-Lago estate where he railed against the charges.
After his second criminal indictment, the ex-president gave a speech at his Bedminster golf club.
The former president has not announced any post-arraignment plans this time around. But it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to resist commenting on the proceedings – at the very least on his Truth Social platform.
Protests and security concerns
Security has ramped up in Washington DC ahead of the arraignment.
Metal barricades were seen being erected outside the courthouse on Wednesday night while the Secret Service confirmed that it is working with multiple law enforcement agencies to “ensure the highest levels of safety and security”.
“While the Secret Service does not comment on specific protective means or methods, we have the utmost confidence in the dedication and commitment to security shared by all of our law enforcement and government partners,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the US Secret Service, said in a statement.
“We are working closely with the Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Park Police, U.S. Capitol Police and the Federal Protective Service to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the former president, while minimizing disruptions to the normal court process.”
The agency warned Washington DC residents that they could face “short-term traffic implications” in the centre of the capital on Thursday.
The E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse is just a few blocks away from the US Capitol where a mob of his supporters staged a violent insurrection to try to overthrow democracy back on 6 January 2021.
The charges
A grand jury, which has spent months hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, returned a federal indictment on Tuesday hitting him with four federal charges:
- Conspiracy to defraud the United States
- Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
- Obstruction of, and attempt, to obstruct an official proceeding
- Conspiracy against rights
The allegations in the indictment
The former president is accused of conspiring with his allies to overturn the 2020 election, in a bid to sabotage the vote of the American people.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges that Mr Trump and his circle of co-conspirators knew that he lost the 2020 election but launched a multi-prong conspiracy to do everything they could to enable him to cling to power.
This included allegedly spreading: “knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendant’s opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant,” according to the indictment.
Mr Trump and his allies also allegedly plotted to send slates of fake electors to seven “targeted states”: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which President Joe Biden had won.
The plan, allegedly, was to get them to falsely certify the election for Mr Trump.
The indictment also alleges Mr Trump tried to use the DoJ to “conduct sham election crime investigations”, sending letters to the seven states claiming that “significant concerns” had been found in the elections in those states.
The scheme also allegedly involved pushing false claims that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to alter the results and push Mr Pence to “fraudulently alter the election results”.
When Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent attack that ended with five deaths, Mr Trump and his co-conspirators allegedly “exploited” the incident by “redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims.”
While the former president is the only person charged in the case, the indictment also refers to six co-conspirators who worked with him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
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