Aviva Fried (in the United States) with AFP / Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN / AFP
Donald Trump had a closed face from the bad days, he seemed pissed off. He had a heated discussion with his lawyers before the start of the hearing. This is the third time since March that the big right-wing favorite for the 2024 presidential election has been criminally charged. But this time he is accused of having endangered the very foundation of American democracy by seeking to derail the electoral process. “Not guilty,” said the Republican billionaire standing in a courtroom, after listening intently to the federal judge in Washington detailing the charges and the maximum prison sentences he faces.
“The persecution of a political opponent” according to Trump
The austere special prosecutor Jack Smith, whose investigation of several months is worth to the tempestuous magnate this new appearance, was also in the courtroom. This is “the persecution of a political opponent”, Donald Trump, 77, later launched under a large black umbrella, just before taking the plane back to Ronald Reagan airport. The former head of state, who still claims that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him, tirelessly denounces a “witch hunt” at the instigation of his Democratic successor, Joe Biden.
With this declaration, Donald Trump reverses things. While he is accused of having tried to stay in power by all means, he presents himself as the victim of a Joe Biden ready to do anything to steal his presidency. It’s the world upside down, but it works. According to a recent poll, 70% of Republicans believe Joe Biden did not win in 2020.
A further hearing to determine the trial date has been set for August 28. It will be held under the authority of federal judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over the proceedings at the trial. Thursday, the defense claimed time to study the mass of documents contained in the file, rising against the request for a speedy trial formulated Tuesday by Jack Smith.
Unpublished charges
The 45-page indictment, which notably mentions a “criminal project”, accuses Donald Trump of having undermined the foundations of American democracy by attempting to subvert the process of counting the votes of more than 150 millions of Americans, unprecedented and all the more serious charges that he was then president in office.
On the other hand, the two previous criminal proceedings brought against him this year, for accounting fraud linked to the purchase of the silence of an actress of X movies and for having compromised national security by his casualness in the treatment of classified documents, bear respectively over the period preceding and following his term of office. “I can assure everyone that there will be a process and a fair trial,” magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya said Thursday.
Always favorite
The federal court where Donald Trump appeared is near the Capitol, the seat of Congress, stormed by hundreds of his white-hot supporters to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory there on January 6, 2021.” Presidents are not kings,” read a sign held by a protester outside the courthouse, referring to a sentence uttered by Judge Chutkan in November 2021 to reject a request by Donald Trump to block the disclosure of information on his actions during the assault on the Capitol.
The magistrate is known for having pronounced severe sentences against participants in this violence. President Biden, on vacation in a Delaware resort on the east coast, had assured that he would not follow reports of the appearance of his potential future adversary in 2024. More than six police departments or security agencies, including the Secret Service, in charge of the protection of the high personalities of the State, mobilized for the historic hearing.
Barriers in front of the Capitol
Fences have been erected around the building, as well as around the Capitol. And more than 24 hours before the start of the hearing, cameras and satellite trucks from the national and international media were already deployed in the square in front of the court, under the objectives and the curious eyes of passers-by and tourists. The consequences of this indictment, and of the trial which could therefore be held in the middle of the presidential campaign, on the candidacy of Donald Trump remain to be determined.
Despite the lawsuits that accumulate, he remains very much a favorite for the Republican nomination and even widens the gap with number 2, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. According to a New York Times/Siena College poll published on Monday, the ex-president is now ahead of him by 37 points.