Washington: For the third time, Donald Trump, former US president, is scheduled to appear in a courtroom as a criminal defendant.
Trump is due in court Thursday before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington for the charges he faces related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Ads by
Trump faces four counts of conspiracy in the indictment released Tuesday, including “conspiracy to defraud” the United States.
In April, Trump appeared in a New York state courtroom to plead not guilty to 34 charges in a hush money scheme stemming from the 2016 election.
In June, he appeared in federal court in Florida to plead not guilty to 37 charges that he illegally hoarded classified documents.
Last week, prosecutors filed additional charges in that case, alleging that he asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida home to obstruct a federal probe into the records. He now faces 40 counts in that case.
Trump is the first former president to face an indictment and the first former US president to be prosecuted by the government he once ran.
Justice Department Special counsel Jack Smith, whose team of prosecutors questioned senior Trump administration officials before a grand jury in Washington, said that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was “fueled by lies” from Donald Trump.
Smith made a brief statement in Washington shortly after the indictment against the former president was released Tuesday.
“The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy,” Smith said, adding that the law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol that day were heroes.
Smith said he’d seek a speedy trial for the former president.
