Trump to appear in court on charges that he tried to overturn election
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[August 03, 2023]
By Sarah N. Lynch, Jacqueline Thomsen and Joseph Ax
(Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump is due to appear in court
on Thursday to face charges he led a wide-ranging conspiracy built on
lies to overturn the 2020 presidential election, culminating in a
violent attack on the seat of American democracy.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination,
is scheduled to appear in a magistrate's courtroom at 4 p.m. ET (2000
GMT) in Washington, D.C., half a mile from the U.S. Capitol, the
building his supporters stormed on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to stop Congress
from certifying his defeat.
In a 45-page indictment on Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith accused
Trump and his allies of promoting false claims that the election was
rigged, pressuring state and federal officials to alter the results and
assembling fake slates of electors to try to wrest electoral votes from
Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump faces four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., to
deprive citizens of their right to have their votes counted and to
obstruct an official proceeding. The most serious charge carries a
maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
In a series of posts on his social media site, Trump framed the
indictment as an contrivance to derail his campaign, while his campaign
issued a statement comparing the Biden administration to fascist
regimes.
The indictment is the third in four months for Trump. He has pleaded not
guilty to federal charges that he retained classified documents after
leaving office and New York state charges that he falsified documents in
connection with hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump may soon face more charges in Georgia, where a state prosecutor is
investigating his attempts to overturn the election there. The
Atlanta-area prosecutor, Fani Willis, has said she will file indictments
by mid-August.
Despite his legal entanglements, Trump leads a field of rivals seeking
the 2024 Republican nomination. Polls show Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
in a distant second among Republican voters, many of whom have embraced
Trump's assertion that he is the victim of a Democratic witch hunt.
The vast majority of Republican leaders, including several competing
with Trump for the White House, have either defended him or avoided
direct criticism, instead accusing the Biden administration of
weaponizing the Justice Department against a political foe.
Law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service and the D.C.
police department, said extra security measures were in place ahead of
Thursday's court session. By late afternoon on Wednesday, reporters were
already lining up to wait overnight for seats inside the courthouse.
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Former U.S. President and Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally
in Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 29, 2023. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario/File
Photo
A spokesperson said Trump would fly from his Florida home to
Washington on Thursday and land around an hour before his scheduled
court appearance.
'YOU'RE TOO HONEST'
Many of the allegations in Tuesday's indictment had been well
documented in media reports and the investigation conducted by a
U.S. House select committee.
But the indictment featured some details that were not widely known,
including several based on grand jury testimony and contemporaneous
notes from former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also running for
the Republican presidential nomination.
In one section, the indictment describes a phone call in which Pence
told Trump there was no legal basis for the theory that Pence could
block certification of the election.
"You're too honest," Trump responded, according to prosecutors.
Although Pence repeatedly told Trump he lacked the authority to
reject electoral votes from certain states, Trump kept repeating the
claim.
On Jan. 6, as he spoke to his supporters before they attacked the
Capitol, Trump said: "If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the
election." Some rioters at the Capitol later chanted, "Hang Mike
Pence!"
Far from deterred by the violence, Trump and an unnamed
co-conspirator kept calling Republican members of Congress hours
after the riot had ended, still intent on blocking certification,
the indictment said.
"We need you, our Republican friends, to just try to slow it down,"
the co-conspirator said in a voicemail to one U.S. senator,
according to prosecutors. The indictment's description of the
co-conspirator makes clear it was Rudy Giuliani, Trump's former
personal attorney.
Pence was one of the few prominent Republicans to criticize Trump on
Tuesday, saying that "anyone who puts himself over the Constitution
should never be president."
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen; Additional
reporting by Tim Reid; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Michael
Perry)
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