For a mugshot, but he did have his fingerprints taken. His Court Appearance took place just blocks from the us Capitol Building, where the events of january 6th played out. The Special Prosecutor alleges in his indictment that the former president fuelled the attack by Sowing Distrust in the 2020 election. The charges mr trump is facing include conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, namely his attempt to stop the counting of the vote. Protests took place outside the District Court in washington, dc on thursday, as the former president faced the charges inside. Some were anti trump demonstrators, and some were his supporters, who waved the american flag. Before boaring his plane to travel back to newjersey, mr trump spoke briefly to reporters. He described the charges as the persecution of a political opponent. This is a very sad day for america. And it was also very sad driving through washington, dc and seeing the filth and the decay
Building. Likely some of the same Law Enforcement officers who were out today providing protection for trumps appearance were also called upon on january 6th to defend the peaceful transfer of power from a Violent Mob Of Trump supporters. Brought there by the man who today was called on by a Magistrate Judge to answer to the four charges against him. Sitting just feet away from trump, as he entered his not guilty plea, was special counsel jack smith. The last time the two were in the same room was trumps previous arraignment in miami. According to the pool reporter, trump glanced briefly in smiths direction when he walked in but did not appear to make eye contact with him, nor did he appear to look at him again for the rest of the hearing. Trump in the courtroom today was stripped of the trappings of former office that he typically airigates to himself. Magistrate judge referred to him as mr. Trump, not president trump, as his fans including fox anchors refer to him. The judge advised
staff who came down to a state and asked to look at voting machines and for the count, to supervise the count. didn t seem to be part of his official duties. want to quickly point out jack smith has now asked judge chutkan on the federal case for a time to respond. he said in a very brief six-pge response that the trial be delayed until 2026. saying it is a very brief response but he thinks there s still time for her to review it before the scheduled august 28th hearing. seems like a brief response could be in order for delaying it that many years after the 24 election. i do think it s important for them to be heard on that. it is, this is basically the whole ball of wax right now in the d.c. case, which is the date of the trial. will it be before the republican convention or the general election? or will it be after this mission
the lawyers and legal team with donald trump, they will be hoping to delay as long as they can, they want theirs to stretch out a while, and if they can, push the key trial dates as close to or after the 2024 election as they possibly can. that is what we will be looking for in this august 28th hearing, we might also hear arguments that the case should be moved outside of washington, dc, trump s lawyers have been vocal saying they don t believe he can get a fair trial here. that might be a long shot argument. that is the next step. as we know, several other legal cases donald trump is dealing with. this is his third indictment, there are other cases in new york as well. and that s on top of the fact that he is still the lead republican candidate for the nomination in 2024, so politics and legal cases will begin to combine very soon. cases will begin to combine very soon- cases will begin to combine ve soon. ., . very soon. thank you so much for that a little earlier, i spoke
america and i didn t feel solemn at all. but as somebody who investigated january 6th and was involved in that process of telling the country in great detail what happened that day and what was done to us, i wonder how this hearing struck you. i think the word that comes to mind is accountability. when we began our investigation, we decided we would follow the facts wherever they took. after we all left our families, came across the country, came to d.c. and fully invested ourselves, and what we wanted was to tell the american people what happened, who did what, and why they did it. our report and our hearings i think did just that. and it gives me a big sense of pride to look how closely the indictment tracks the work of the committee. and i think what it shows, it validates work we did and shows we got it right, and i think now it s up to the justice department to continue our work.