Recap
Here are the main things you need to know about the day’s events.
The special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four felony counts.
Conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
Conspiracy against rights.
Trump pleads not guilty to four charges over efforts to overturn 2020 election
Trump has been defiant in his response to the indictment, but appeared quiet and restrained in the courtroom.
The former president sat at the defense table, folding and unfolding his hands. His plea of not guilty was quiet, almost imperceptible. In his remarks before and after his appearance in court, he was more of his usual self.
“When you look at what’s happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent,” he said at Ronald Reagan airport. “This was never supposed to happen in America.”
Smith this week said he was pursuing a “speedy trial”, and the magistrate judge seemed to follow suit.
Unlike Trump’s other legal cases, where the next court dates were scheduled for months later, the first hearing for this case will happen within the month. Trump’s lawyers challenged the swiftness of the proceedings but the date was not changed.
“All we would ask, Your Honor, is the opportunity to fairly defend our client,” lawyer John Lauro said. “But in order to do that, we’re going to need a little time.”
Trump can still run for president if he is charged and even convicted.
The US constitution does not bar those convicted of a crime from running for president.
There could be a pathway to blocking him, through the 14th amendment to the US constitution. That says someone cannot hold office if they have taken an oath to the United States, as Trump did when he was inaugurated, and then engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the country.
While some have distanced themselves, many of Trump’s allies and inner circle remain close to the former president.
Trump’s co-defendant in the federal case over the former president’s retention of classified documents, Walt Nauta, accompanied him to the courthouse in Washington. Evan Corcoran, a Trump lawyer who was compelled to testify in the classified documents case, was also present.
The presiding judge is no stranger to issues of election subversion.
Tanya Chutkan, appointed by Barack Obama, has handed down strict sentences for January 6 rioters. She once blocked an attempt by Trump to refuse a House January 6 committee request for White House files. That decision released mounds of evidence that shaped the investigation, Politico reported.
– Guardian Staff
Updated
Who is Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump?
Smith, a 54-year-old veteran prosecutor appointed as special counsel by the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in November 2022, has now brought two indictments against Trump, the first one surrounding Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents that were discovered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice,” Smith said in a statement.
“The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate,” he added.
Before his appointment as special counsel in the Trump investigations, Smith was the specialist prosecutor at The Hague’s Kosovo specialist chambers where he investigated war crimes from 1998 to 2000 during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia.
Smith, a registered independent and graduate of Harvard law school, began his three-decade career as a prosecutor in 1994 at the Manhattan district attorney’s office – the same office which filed a 34-count indictment against Trump in April surrounding hush-money payments during the 2016 presidential election.
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