WASHINGTON – Former US President Donald Trump is in custody at the US District Court in Washington, DC, and will soon be arraigned on criminal charges related to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election leading up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Trump appeared in the court after telling supporters that ‘I’m being arrested for you.’
The former president is facing his most serious charges so far in what marks the third criminal case brought against him in the past six months.
CNN reported late Thursday that part of the purpose of Thursday’s first appearance hearing is for the magistrate judge, Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, to approve of the bail conditions that will allow Trump to be released from federal custody up until trial. This is the third time the former president has been placed under arrest and arraigned in four months. Trump will be placed in the custody of the US Marshals Service and he will be processed as part of the proceedings.
When he was placed into custody for the first appearance in the classified documents prosecution last month in Miami’s federal courthouse, he submitted to fingerprints and provided other information to court officials, though he was not required to take a mugshot. The processing for the DC appearance will likely be more streamlined, given that Trump is now already in the federal system. Trump is expected to plead not guilty. He has been charged with four counts:
Conspiracy to defraud the United States, Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, Conspiracy against rights.
Metal barricades and municipal trunks formed a security ring around the E. Barret Prettyman courthouse in Washington, where the arrest and arraignment of the former president will take place within sight of the US Capitol that was stormed by his supporters on January 6, 2021.__The Nation
