‘We can’t let this happen’, Trump says after pleading not guilty to 2020 election plot
By Farrah Tomazin
Washington: Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, adding to a string of explosive trials the former president will face as he campaigns to return to the White House.
Almost 2½ years after the deadly attack at the US Capitol building, Trump has appeared at a federal court in Washington a few blocks away from the scene of the riots, to face criminal charges for the third time in four months.
Declaring it “a great honour” to be charged for “having challenged a corrupt, rigged and stolen election”, the 77-year-old Republican left his golf course in New Jersey around 1pm on Thursday (US time) to travel to the nation’s capital.
Amid heightened security, he arrived in court shortly before 3.30pm to be processed, wearing his signature long red tie and dark blue suit. About an hour later, on the second floor of the courtroom, he pleaded not guilty to four charges relating to his role in trying to stop Joe Biden’s presidential victory from being certified: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights (namely, the rights of voters).
Those charges put Trump at the centre of a months-long, multipart plan to stay in power by stoking lies about voter fraud, embracing a scheme designed to use fake electors to flip electoral college votes in seven battleground states, mounting a campaign to pressure state and federal officials to overturn the results, and exploiting the protest that led to the Capitol riots.
Donald Trump has been charged for his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots and efforts to overturn the election.Credit: AP
Trump, however, continues to maintain his innocence, telling reporters after his hearing that this was a “sad day for America” and claiming that he was being politically targeted to thwart his presidential bid.
“If you can’t beat them, you persecute them, or you prosecute them. We can’t let this happen in America,” he said.
A trial date has not been set, but a preliminary hearing has been marked for August 28 – five days after the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee. Trump is expected to fight the charges in court by arguing that he is protected by America’s right to free speech, and that he genuinely believed that the 2020 election was rigged.
“It’s a very straightforward defence – that he had every right to advocate for a position that he believed in, and that his supporters believed in,” his lawyer, John Lauro, told NPR.
“What we will argue to the jury – and we’ll win – is that the president was arguing for the truth to come out in that election cycle, rather than the truth to be denied.”
The latest charges come a few weeks after Trump was indicted in a Miami court for his alleged mishandling of classified documents – a case that is scheduled to go to trial in May.
In April, he was also charged in a Manhattan court over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in a trial that is expected to begin in March.
And in Georgia, a potential fourth indictment looms, with District Attorney Fani Willis set to decide this month whether to charge Trump over alleged electoral interference in that state.
Despite his legal woes, Trump remains defiant, posting on his Truth Social platform: “I NEED ONE MORE INDICTMENT TO ENSURE MY ELECTION!”
Outside the federal courthouse in Washington – the same courthouse where hundreds of January 6 rioters have been prosecuted – a security perimeter went up overnight ahead of Trump’s appearance.
A Trump supporter waves a flag near the Federal Courthouse in Washington.Credit: AP
The building was surrounded by metal barricades and yellow tape from the US Marshall’s office, and numerous roads around the DC judicial precinct had been blocked off.
A few blocks away, metal fencing had also been placed around the Capitol – the site where thousands of Trump supporters staged a violent insurrection in 2021 that left several people dead and about 150 police officers injured.
But by lunchtime on Thursday, only a few Trump supporters had gathered along Constitution Avenue – in stark contrast to the crowds that appeared in New York and Miami ahead of his earlier indictments.
Former president Donald Trump speaks after being charged.Credit: AP
One man drove past in a limousine with the licence plate “TRUMP DC”, his identity obscured by a cardboard cutout of the former president’s face.
“We need to make America great again,” he said, declining to give his name.
Another Trump supporter, Dion Cini, was wearing a red MAGA hat and waved a flag that said, “Trump or Death”.
Cini said he was in Washington on January 6, 2021 to do “what President Trump said: peacefully and patriotically make my way to the Capitol”. Asked if he had entered the building that day, he replied: “I can’t answer that”.
Trump supporter Dion Cini awaits the former president’s arrival at court.Credit: Farrah Tomazin
However, the New York resident was adamant the latest charges would not hurt Trump’s chances of winning the Republican nomination.
“I think he’ll go up five points in the polls,” he said. “The Democrats think they’re a smart organisation, but they’re too dumb for their own good.”
The crowd gradually built throughout the afternoon, and by the time Trump’s motorcade left the court to return to Washington’s Ronald Reagan airport, hundreds of people – fans and opponents – had gathered in the judicial precinct to watch political history unfold.
The latest indictment was handed down on Thursday by Special Counsel Jack Smith – the same prosecutor who has charged Trump over the classified documents scandal. It is largely centred around Trump, but also lists six unnamed co-conspirators who allegedly assisted his attempt to overturn the election.
Five of them have so far been identified as former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesboro, and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. The sixth alleged co-conspirator is an unidentified political consultant.
With 15 months before the presidential election, many Republicans continue to rally around Trump, saying he is being unfairly targeted by a “two-tiered” justice system under the Biden administration.
Some point to classified documents being found in Biden’s possession (a conclusion has not yet been reached by Special Counsel Robert Hur), while others highlight the alleged “sweetheart” plea deal his son Hunter received to avoid jail over tax evasion and unlawful gun possession.
Biden has been holidaying in Rehoboth Beach this week and has not commented on the matters involving Trump, or the troubles of Hunter Biden.
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