- Donald Trump showed up to court to plead not guilty to crimes — again.
- This time, it’s for the DOJ indictment over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
- It’s the third time he’s been criminally charged this year.
Former President Donald Trump was hauled to court for the third time in less than six months to be arraigned for alleged crimes.
In Washington, DC, federal court on Thursday afternoon, Trump entered a not-guilty plea for the latest indictment, alleging he broke criminal laws by trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
On Tuesday, a DC-based federal grand jury overseen by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith brought four charges against Trump. The indictment alleges Trump conspired to obstruct Congress’s role in certifying now-President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election and tried to rob Americans of their legal right to have their votes counted.
“Not guilty,” Trump said at Thursday’s arraignment, overseen by US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya.
Trump’s criminal case is set to be overseen by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
Prosecutors didn’t ask for Trump to be jailed ahead of trial but asked the judge to order him not to contact other potential witnesses except through his attorneys.
Smith, who was present in the courtroom at Thursday’s arraignment, is also overseeing a separate set of charges against the ex-president. In an indictment brought in Florida federal court in June, he accused Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents in Mar-a-Lago after he left the presidency and obstructing efforts from law enforcement to retrieve them. Trump pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was the first to indict Trump — who is the first former president to ever be criminally charged, much less three times.
Bragg alleged Trump illegally falsified documents with his hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, an adult film actress who says she had an affair with Trump. Trump entered a not-guilty plea to those charges in Manhattan state court in April and is scheduled to go to trial for those charges in March.
In polls, Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election. His attorneys are due back in court on August 28, five days after the party’s first presidential debate, where they’re expected to discuss a trial schedule with prosecutors.
