WASHINGTON (WHDH) - Preparations were underway Wednesday ahead of an expected court appearance for Former President Donald Trump to face charges linked to his allegedly trying to block the transfer of power from the election he lost in 2020.
Trump was indicted on Tuesday. His arraignment in federal court in Washington DC is scheduled for Thursday.
Prosecutors say Trump conspired with his lawyers and others to overturn the 2020 election. The former president has denied the claims and said he is ready to fight the accusations.
“Our defense is going to be focusing on the fact that, what we have now is an administration that has criminalized the free speech and advocacy of a prior administration during the time that there’s a political election going on,” said Trump attorney John Lauro. “That’s unprecedented.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland rejected that argument.
“Mr. Smith and his team of experienced principled career agents and prosecutors have followed the facts and the law wherever they lead,” he told reporters.
Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
Special Council Jack Smith spoke on Tuesday. He said this case includes Trump’s role in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government,” Smith said.
In now unsealed documents, prosecutors claim “[Trump] widely disseminated his false claims of election fraud for months, despite the fact that he knew, and in many cases had been informed directly, that they were not true.”
Documents also cite handwritten notes from Former Vice President Mike Pence referencing a Jan. 1 meeting in which Trump is accused of asking Pence to reject the election certification.
Pence said he couldn’t take such action.
“In response,” documents say, “[Trump] told the Vice President, ‘You’re too honest.”
Three days later, during another meeting, documents say Pence told Trump “Did you hear that? Even your own counsel is not saying I have the authority.”
“Trump responded, ‘That’s okay, I prefer the other suggestion’ of the Vice President rejecting the electors unilaterally,” documents say.
Pence on the presidential campaign trail for the 2024 election has said he was unable to convince Trump to follow the Constitution as Pence saw it, saying, “sadly, the President was depending on a bunch of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.”
After Tuesday’s indictment, Lauro said he could see this case taking between nine months and one year.
“The government has had three years to investigate this and now they want to rush this to trial in the middle of a political season,” Lauro said. “What does that tell you? We deserve as much time as any American citizen to defend on these issues as anyone else.”
Trump was in New Jersey Wednesday afternoon at his Bedminster country club. He is expected to travel to Washington DC on Thursday, where a crush of media personnel were already assembled outside court Wednesday. The judge who will oversee this case is D.C. Federal Trial Court Judge Tanya Chutkan. In November 2021, Chutkan forcefully rejected Trump’s attempts to block the Jan. 6 committee from accessing more than 700 pages of his White House records, writing “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.”
Locally, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was among others reacting to Trump’s recent indictment on Wednesday, saying it gets to the heart of the United States’ democracy.
“He’ll be indicted,” Warren said. “He’ll have a trial. He’ll have a chance to say whatever he wants to say at that trail. But this is a reminder. This is how democracy works. No one is above the law — not even a former president of the United States.”
Trump’s arraignment on Thursday is currently scheduled for 4 p.m.
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