Trump summoned to court on Thursday
The former president has been summoned to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Washington DC on Thursday.
Things are moving relatively fast. Jack Smith, the special counsel, said he would seek a “speedy trial”, and stressed that Trump was entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
Trump is expected to be arraigned – a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant – at the DC district court before magistrate judge Moxila A Upadhyaya.
Key events
A reader has sent in a couple of questions that I’m sure are on everyone’s mind:
1.) “Will he go to jail”
2.) “Will he run in 2024”
The answer to the first one is “possibly” and the second is “still very likely”.
Trump faces charges that have maximum jail sentences of many, many years.
There is even a scenario in which Trump both goes to jail and runs in 2024 (and even wins!).
University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen, told CNN that there is no constitutional rule that bars “anyone indicted, or convicted, or even serving jail time, from running as president and winning the presidency”.
“How someone would serve as president from prison is a happily untested question,” Hasen said.
For those just waking up, here is our most recent news story:
Trump summoned to court on Thursday
The former president has been summoned to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Washington DC on Thursday.
Things are moving relatively fast. Jack Smith, the special counsel, said he would seek a “speedy trial”, and stressed that Trump was entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
Trump is expected to be arraigned – a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant – at the DC district court before magistrate judge Moxila A Upadhyaya.
Indictment says Trump knowingly ‘spread lies’
The case against Trump was announced last night by special counsel Jack Smith. He is a federal prosecutor – a government lawyer who is tasked with prosecuting criminal cases.
When announcing the charges, Smith encourages everyone to read in full the 45-page indictment. The document is written in quite a straightforward, readable way, and it packs a punch, calling Trump a liar.
You can read it in full here, but here are parts of the introduction:
“The Defendant [Trump] lost the 2020 presidential election. Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day … the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”
(Note: “outcome-determinative” means that the alleged election fraud was so big that it would have changed the outcome of the election ie mean Trump had won)
Trump charged over attempts to stay in power despite election loss
Oliver Holmes
Donald Trump has been indicted with several crimes in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a frenzied attempt to stay in power.
The indictment, filed in federal district court in Washington, charges Trump with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
In short (and avoiding legalese) the charges relate to Trump’s alleged effort to deny the American people their democratic right to choose their own leader.
Hello readers! Oliver Holmes here, and I’ll be kicking off today’s US live blog.
There are now a dizzying number of legal cases swirling around the Republican leader, but I promise to try to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible.
The stakes are high. Tuesday’s indictment marks the first time a US president has faced criminal charges for trying to overturn an election. And next year, Americans will vote in an election where Trump looks set to be the Republican candidate.
Stay with us…
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