The 77-year-old Republican, who is running for office again, appeared in court in Washington from about 16:00 EDT (20:00 GMT), and is expected to enter a plea in due course. Mr. Barr, who was appointed by the former president, said that Mr. Trump “knew well he lost the election.” Mr. Trump is accused by federal prosecutors of repeatedly lying about mass voter fraud and pressing officials to change results to keep him in power.
There is nothing more protected under the First Amendment [the right to free speech] than political discourse, according to Trump attorney John Lauro, who termed the indictment an assault on free speech.
However, Mr. Barr, who resigned from his position as the head of the US legal system soon after Joe Biden won the election in November 2020, claimed that free speech is not a legitimate defense.
That, however, does not keep you from joining a conspiracy.
A further pillar of Mr. Trump’s defense, that he was not misleading the American people because he always felt he had won, is undermined by Mr. Barr’s claim that his former boss understood he had lost the election.
He continued, calling the alleged conduct of the former president described in the indictment “nauseating” and “despicable.”
In this most recent indictment, Mr. Trump is accused of conspiring to defraud the US, hindering an official investigation, and conspiring to violate citizens’ rights to have their votes counted. He is charged with four counts in total.
He has already been accused of handling classified documents improperly and fabricating financial records to hide payments made to a porn star in two other cases.
On the eve of the arrest, Mr. Trump criticized the case, calling it evidence of the “corruption, scandal, and failure” of the US administration under Joe Biden.
Since leaving the White House, the former president has only made one trip to Washington, D.C.
According to a representative for the US Marshals Service, a federal law enforcement organization that protects courts, Mr. Trump will have his fingerprints taken and be asked for some basic information, like his date of birth and Social Security number.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump appeared before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya; Tanya Chutkan will preside over the criminal trial.
An examination of the circumstances leading up to the incident at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, resulted in the indictment.
It centered on Mr. Trump’s behavior during the two months between his defeat by Joe Biden and the violence in Washington, DC, where his supporters rushed Congress as lawmakers formally proclaimed the Democrat the winner.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is in charge of the investigation, did not accuse the former president of instigating the crowd on that particular day but claimed that the violence had been “fuelled” by his lies.
A “conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the function of the federal government through dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” is alleged in the court document against Mr. Trump.
In the race to choose the next presidential nominee for the Republican Party, Mr. Trump is currently the undisputed front-runner.
Republicans in Congress have backed him up, saying the most recent indictment demonstrates how the US has turned into a “banana republic,” and reiterating the former president’s assertion that the indictments amount to electoral interference.
Mike Pence, Mr. Trump’s former vice president, is mentioned more than 100 times in the indictment.
As part of his ceremonial duty to certify the election, the letter claims that he was frequently under pressure from his superior to reject the genuine electoral votes.
On Wednesday, he claimed that by refusing to comply with Mr. Trump’s requests, he had “done his duty”.
He stated, “Unfortunately, the president was surrounded by a bunch of crackpot lawyers who kept telling him what his scratchy ears wanted to hear.” In the end, the president persisted in insisting that I chose him above the Constitution.
A portion of the 45-page election-related charge against Mr. Trump is based on notes Mr. Pence made at the time of their chats in the days before the incident at the US Capitol.
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