Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss, answering for the first time to federal charges that accuse him of orchestrating an attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
The former US president appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington’s federal courthouse two days after being indicted by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith.
Of the three criminal cases he's facing, the most recent charges are especially historic since they focus on Trump's efforts as president to subvert the will of voters and obstruct the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
His refusal to accept defeat and claims about widespread election fraud helped fuel the violent riot on January 6, 2021, when a mob of supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Trump, who is now the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, sat stern-faced as his court appearance began. He stood up to enter his “not guilty” plea, answered perfunctory questions from the judge and thanked her at the conclusion of the arraignment.
His appearance unfolded at a courthouse between the Capitol and the White House, in a building where more than 1,000 of the Capitol rioters have been charged by the Justice Department.
The indictment charges Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss, including conspiracy to defraud the US government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges could lead to a lengthy prison sentence in the event of a conviction, with the most serious counts calling for up to 20 years.
US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya set the next court date for August 28, when a tentative trial date will be set.
Trump's legal team has characterised the case as an attack on his right to free speech and his right to challenge an election that he believed had been stolen.
In a brief statement at Washington's Reagan National Airport before he boarded his plane back to New Jersey, Trump descibed the arraignment as 'a very sad day for America'.
“This is the persecution of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot," he said. "So if you can’t beat ‘em, you persecute ‘em or you prosecute ’em. We can’t let this happen in America.”
The election theft case is part of escalating legal troubles for the ex-president, coming nearly two months after Trump pleaded not guilty to dozens of federal felony counts accusing him of hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them. That case is set for trial next May.
He was also charged in New York with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential campaign, a case scheduled for trial next March. And prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are expected in the coming weeks to announce charging decisions in an investigation into efforts to subvert election results in that state.
Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted. The former president's allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.
The indictment chronicles how Trump and his Republican allies, in what Smith described as an attack on a “bedrock function of the US government,” repeatedly lied about the results in the two months after he lost the election and pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, and state election officials to take action to help him cling to power.
The former president was the only person charged in the case, though prosecutors referenced six unnamed co-conspirators they say he plotted with, including in a scheme to enlist fake electors in seven battleground states won by Biden to submit false certificates to the federal government.
