Trump to appear in court to face charges he sought to overturn 2020 election result

Former US president Donald Trump is to appear in court on Thursday for what is likely to be the start of the process for a third criminal trial which he will face in the months ahead.

Mr Trump will be arraigned at the court appearance in Washington DC on Thursday afternoon, where prosecutors will allege that he led a conspiracy aimed at overturning the 2020 election after he lost to his Democrat rival, Joe Biden.

A grand jury in Washington earlier this week indicted the former president on four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

At the arraignment hearing, Mr Trump is expected to have the charges read to him and be asked how he will plead in the case.

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It is expected that he will then be released pending further proceedings at a future date.

When he presents at the court, Mr Trump is expected to be processed including having his fingerprints taken digitally. He will be required to provide details of his address, date of birth and social security number. It is not anticipated that he will have his photograph taken and he will not be formally arrested.

The former president is the frontrunner to secure the nomination of the Republican party to run again for the White House next year.

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However, already he is scheduled to go on trial in March in New York over allegations in a state case of falsifying business records in relation to hush money payments to a porn star before the 2016 election. In May he is facing federal prosecution in Florida over his handling of classified documents which he took from the White House after leaving office.

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and is likely to do the same in relation to the new indictment.

The former president and his allies have insisted that charges against him are politically motivated and are aimed at preventing him returning to power.

If found guilty in any of the cases, he could face years in prison.

However, the various indictments – and even any subsequent conviction – would not disqualify him from serving as president under the US constitution if elected next year.

The new charges against the former president centre on allegations that he sought to remain as president even though he was defeated in the election in November 2020.

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The department of justice indictment stems from an investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith, which focused on the actions of Mr Trump, as well as his allies and supporters, in the lead-up to the January 6th, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

“Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power,” the indictment, released on Tuesday evening, states.

“So for more than two months following election day on November 3rd, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false and the defendant knew they were false.”

There were indications on Wednesday that Mr Trump would argue in his defence that he had a right to challenge the election results under free speech rules in the United States and that prosecutors were undermining his first amendment rights.

He may also seek to move any trial out of Washington DC to another location where politically he would be more popular – such as West Virginia.

The new indictment contends that Mr Trump enlisted six co-conspirators “to assist him in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power”.

The six alleged co-conspirators were not identified in the indictment and do not appear to have been charged. Information set out in the indictment suggests that most are lawyers who worked with the former president after the election and include individuals such as the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.