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Former US president Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 presidential election loss.
Mr Trump was answering for the first time to federal charges that accuse him of orchestrating a brazen and ultimately failed attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
After his court appearance, Mr Trump was driven back to Reagan National Airport in Washington where he gave a brief statement to the media, saying: “This was never supposed to happen in America.”
“This is a very sad day for America. It was also very sad driving through Washington DC and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti. This is not the place that I left ... This is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America.
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“This is the persecussion of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot. So if you can’t beat them, you persecute them or you prosecute them. We can’t let this happen in America. Thank you very much.”
Mr Trump then boarded his jet to return to his home in New Jersey.
Mr Trump appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington’s federal courthouse two days after being indicted on four felony counts by US justice department special counsel Jack Smith.
The early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination appeared before a magistrate judge on charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The charges accuse him of trying to subvert the will of voters and undo his election loss in the days before January 6th, 2021, when supporters stormed the US Capitol in a violent and bloody clash with law enforcement.
The courthouse sits within sight of the US Capitol that his supporters attacked to stop Congress from certifying Democrat and current US president Joe Biden’s election victory.
It is the third criminal case filed against Mr Trump this year, but the first to try to hold him criminally responsible for his efforts to cling to power in the weeks between his election loss and the Capitol attack that stunned the world as it unfolded live on TV.
[ Donald Trump cases explained: Where does each investigation stand? ]
Mr Trump’s motorcade made its way through the US capital’s crowded streets, using lights and sirens – a journey documented in wall-to-wall cable news coverage.
Mr Trump has said he did nothing wrong and has accused special counsel Jack Smith of trying to thwart his chances of returning to the White House in 2024.
An indictment on Tuesday from Mr Smith charges Mr Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss in the run-up to the January 6th, 2021, riot at the Capitol, including conspiracy to defraud the US government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
The charges could lead to a prison sentence of several years in the event of a conviction.
The Republican former president was the only person charged in the case, though prosecutors referenced six unnamed co-conspirators, mostly lawyers, they say he plotted with, including in a scheme to enlist fake electors in seven battleground states won by Mr Biden to submit false certificates to the federal government.
The indictment chronicles how Mr Trump and his Republican allies, in what Mr 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.
[ Donald Trump indictment: who are the ‘co-conspirators’ accused of seeking to overturn 2020 election? ]
This is the third criminal case brought against Mr Trump in less than six months.
He was charged in New York with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Mr Smith’s office has also charged him with 40 felony counts in Florida, accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing government demands to give them back.
He has pleaded not guilty in both those cases, which are set for trial next year.
And prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are expected in coming weeks to announce charging decisions in an investigation into efforts to subvert election results in that state.
Mr Trump’s lawyer John Lauro has asserted in television interviews that Mr Trump’s actions were protected by the first amendment right of the US constitution to free speech and that he relied on the advice of lawyers.
Mr Trump has claimed without evidence that Smith’s team is trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election. – AP/Reuters