Judge Moxila Upadhyaya entered the courtroom at 4:15 p.m. She was fifteen minutes late, which upset Donald Trump, who was seated between his lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro, according to reporters present at the federal court in Washington. The clerk read the title of the file: Criminal Case 23-257: United States v. Donald J. Trump”.
This Thursday, August 3, in the courtroom where Richard Nixon was ordered to hand over to justice the recordings of his secret conversations on the Watergate scandal, the judge was in charge of the indictment of the 45e President of the United States for the “criminal plan” for having tried to stay in power despite his electoral defeat in November 2020. She has endeavored to prove that no one is above the law. The accused was interrogated according to the protocol applied to all defendants. Name ? Donald John Trump, replied the former president. Age ? 77 years old.
The judge ensured that the accused was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and that he was informed that he had the right to remain silent. After listing the grounds for indictment, she specified the maximum penalties incurred. Conspiracy against American institutions: five years. Conspiracy to obstruct official process: twenty years. Obstruction of due process: twenty years. Violation of civil rights: ten years. In total, a maximum of 55 years. “How does Mr. Trump plead? », she inquired.
In Florida, where he was indicted on June 13 for keeping classified defense documents after leaving the White House, Donald Trump had not said a word. This time he got up to answer himself: ” Not guilty. » Jack Smith, the special prosecutor, sat in the front row. Several federal judges, including the president of the Federal Court of the capital, James Boasberg, had wanted to attend an unprecedented event: for the first time in American history, a former president was prosecuted for acts committed during his mandate. .
An election in the courtroom
The hearing lasted twenty-seven minutes. Unlike the Florida indictment, no photo was seized of the defendant as he entered court or entered the courtroom. The television networks, which had not missed a minute of Mr. Trump’s journey from his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, resumed the live broadcast of the course of his motorcade to the tarmac glistening with humidity of the Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington. Shortly after 5 p.m., Donald Trump made a brief statement to the press under an umbrella marked “Trump”. “This is a day of great sadness for America,” he said, before launching into a digression on the state of the federal capital. “It was also very sad to drive around DC and see the dirt and the dilapidation and all the damaged buildings and the walls and the graffiti… This is not the place I left. »
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