Arraigned on charges he conspired to stay in office

By Vijaya Chandrasoma

Following an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith, a Washington D.C. grand jury charged, on August 1, 2023, the former President Donald Trump for his direction of a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, inciting his supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The four charges were: conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, acting against the (voting) rights of citizens and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

The government summoned Trump to appear for arraignment in Washington D.C. federal court on Thursday, August 3, presided over by Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhaya.

Law enforcement had taken all measures necessary to control any violence threatened on Trump’s arrest, although similar threats had not materialized during his previous arrests in Manhattan and Miami. The predictions of “death and destruction” and “blood in the streets” previously made by Trump and Senator Lindsay Graham, respectively, if Trump was arrested, were grossly optimistic. Quite the contrary. A handful of pro-Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters, holding picturesque signs were outnumbered by hordes of national and international media gathered to cover the event.

When Trump finally appeared at the court as scheduled, his demeanor was both apprehensive and somber. It was quite a moment when the clerk called out the case, the United States v. Donald J. Trump, just a few yards away from the scene of the crime of which he was being accused. Magistrate Judge Upadhaya reminded him of his rights. Then she said, “You will be released on very limited conditions. One, that you don’t commit a new crime while on release, and two, that you don’t retaliate against anyone you think is a witness, and only talk to such witnesses in the presence of their lawyers”. Trump said he understood the conditions, sat down with his lawyers, appearing to be angry, his hands clasped, all the time staring at Special Counsel, Jack Smith who was seated 50 yards away.

He pleaded Not Guilty on all charges

The Magistrate Judge assured Trump that he would get a fair and speedy trial in this courthouse. The next hearing, fixed for August 28, will be presided over by District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been randomly so assigned.

On his departure from the DC courthouse, Trump spoke to reporters, saying, “When you look at what’s happening, this is the persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot. So, if you can’t beat him, you persecute him or prosecute him. We can’t let this happen in America”.

Tanya Chutkan is a District Court Judge from the District of Columbia. She will be familiar to the Trump team, to whom her assignment may be of some concern. In 2021, Judge Chutkan blocked Trump’s efforts to stop a Congressional committee’s bid to access his White House papers, with the famous comment, “Presidents are not kings, and the plaintiff is not the president”. She is generally considered to be a consummate professional, a no-nonsense judge conscious of the due process rights of the defendant, “who will handle a sensitive case with utmost care. She is likely to do what is in her power to protect the former president’s rights as a criminal defendant”.

Trump now faces 78 criminal charges from three jurisdictions, a record that will only be broken by Trump himself, when Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney, Fani Willis frames charges against him on criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election in her county. She recently said, “We are ready to go”, so new indictments for Trump are imminent. Maybe he’ll hit three figures in charges before long. The Donald Bradman Trump of Felonies!

The charging document includes six co-conspirators. Their identities have been withheld because they have not as yet been charged with any crimes. Five have been identified as Rudi Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro (Trump attorneys), and former Department of Justice official, Jeffrey Clark. The sixth co-conspirator still remains unidentified, but is believed to be a longtime political associate of Trump.

Jack Smith has not charged these co-conspirators as he may be hopeful one or more will enter into a plea agreement and co-operate with the prosecution.

Of course, knowing that Trump’s loyalty is exclusively to Trump, he is quite capable of throwing one or more of these co-conspirators under the bus, with the allegation that he was “misled” by them, that their advice had convinced him that he had no criminal intent in inciting the insurrection.

Another defense proffered by Trump’s lawyers is that his speech from the ellipse to the rally before the insurrection, when he urged his supporters, “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more”, was covered by First Amendment rights of free speech; it had nothing to do with the violence that immediately followed at the Capitol. Like Hitler’s Big Lie rants that Germany lost World War I because the Germans were betrayed by the Jews had nothing to with the holocaust.

The fact that Mark Meadows, Trump’s Chief of Staff, has not been named as a co-conspirator was a massive surprise. He was the closest to Trump during his Lame Duck presidency between the November election and the January inauguration. He was privy to all the criminal machinations to overturn the election during that period, right up to the 187 minutes when Trump did nothing while the riot at the Capitol was unfolding.

Meadows has been keeping a very low profile over the past few months, supposedly advising the radical wing of the Republican Party. But there has also been some conjecture that he has been cutting a deal with the prosecution. His evidence would deal a death blow to the Trump defense.

Special Counsel, Jack Smith, in a brief statement on Tuesday, said that the Justice Department is “committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened” on January 6, which he described as “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy”. He added “As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election”. He added that his office will seek a “speedy trial” for former President Donald Trump. An objective shared by Judge Chutkan, who has set the next hearing for August 28. After hearing defense requirements of time to prepare for the trial, she will set the first trial date. The prosecution has already indicated that it’s ready to go.

These indictments came on top of new felony charges under the Espionage Act, “a superseding indictment” that Jack Smith served on Trump last week, with overwhelming evidence that Trump had instructed his employees to delete security camera footage showing attempts to delete and move top-secret documents. Documents that the Department of Justice had earlier issued a subpoena for their release, which Trump has illegally resisted.

Two low level employees have now been indicted for their roles in this crime. A third, employed in overseeing surveillance cameras at Mar-a-Lago, refused to comply with illegal orders and has co-operated with the Special Counsel. Hopefully, the evidence he has given about Trump’s criminal attempt to delete the server containing incriminating evidence will make an already indefensible case watertight.

When Trump says, “You know they are coming for you, not for me. I am fighting for you, not for me”, he fails to mention that he is using “your” donations to pay the legal fees involved in fighting for “you”. Just this year alone, he has used $40 million+ of “your donations” to the Republican Party PAC for this purpose.

A PAC is an acronym for a Political Action Committee, “an organization that campaigns for particular political policies, and gives money to political parties or candidates who support those policies”. PACs didn’t give monies to gangster Al Capone to pay his legal fees, just as the Republican PACs are not supposed to pay Trump’s personal legal fees for the heinous crimes he has committed. As former Trump Attorney General, Bill Barr said, “it is nauseating and disgraceful for a multi-billionaire like Trump to use donor’s money to pay his legal fees”.

So, my Republican friends, please dig deep and keep sending Trump more money so that he can continue fighting to keep all of you out of prison, for the numerous crimes he has committed.

These new indictments may add to Trump’s legal problems, but they also serve to increase his popularity in the Republican polls. He enjoys a commanding lead over those who have announced their candidatures for the 2024 Republican nomination.

These declared challengers seem to be playing a waiting game. Most of them are not running against him, they are still running towards him, all the time hoping he will implode. As well he may. Even his main challenger in the polls, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defends him. The others really don’t matter as they are running in low single digits in the polls, struggling to even qualify to participate in the first presidential debate later this month.

Unless a miracle happens in the form of a decent Republican (has that become an oxymoron today?) challenger for the presidency, the Party will be left with a presidential nominee, a convicted felon, campaigning for the 2024 presidency arrested and on bail on more than 100 Class A felonies. A nominee who will have to juggle numerous trial dates per month in cases from four jurisdictions, while campaigning for the highest post in the world. Perhaps wearing ankle bracelets. Perhaps even from prison. And, according to current polls, he still has an even money chance of winning.

Only in America.