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Barriers are set up outside the courthouse in Washington DC on Thursday.
1 / 2Photo: Alex Brandon/AP/TT
Donald Trump prepares to appear in a court hearing in Washington DC. Ahead of the hearings, the court building has been transformed into a fort.
With only hours left until Donald Trump’s appearance, he has again spoken out on his own platform Truth Social that the impeachment is unprecedented in American history.
“The Democrats do not want to stand against me in the election (2024), otherwise they would not have taken this unprecedented step,” he writes during the early morning in the US.
According to the plan, the former president of the United States is to appear in court at 10 p.m. Swedish time, but just like in New York in April and Miami in June, his journey from his golf club in Bedminster in New Jersey to the federal court in Washington DC is believed to be closely followed in the hours before the performance – by the media as well as his faithful followers.
Once there, Trump will have his fingerprints taken and must provide personal information such as date of birth and the corresponding social security number before he is brought before a court hearing where an indictment is read out and he must declare himself guilty or not guilty.
On both previous occasions this year, Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts, as he is expected to do again.
He is charged with four counts of attempting to overturn the 2020 election results by spreading lies that Biden won by cheating, culminating in the storming of the Capitol.
The E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse is just a few blocks from the Capitol and activity at the building has been high for the past 24 hours. Police with sniffer dogs and security services are working to the last detail to secure the building and surroundings.
It is still unclear when the trial will take place. The prosecution wants to see a trial soon, but Trump’s lawyers say they need time to prepare the defense.
FACTS Charged on four counts
The four-point indictment concerns Trump’s attempt to have the results of the 2020 presidential election annulled, and the crimes are described as conspiracy, among other things.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election through the use of knowingly false allegations of election fraud,” the 45-page indictment states.
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly tried to adjust the results after the 2020 presidential election in his favor. It culminated in the storming of the Capitol congress building on January 6, 2021. But before that, Trump is said to have tried to influence, among other things, election workers and elected officials in several states.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith says the storming of the Capitol was carried out by Trump supporters driven by his lies about election fraud. Inside the building, Congress was then going to formally designate Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election when Trump’s supporters filed in.
Several co-conspirators are named in the indictment, but not by name because they are not charged with any crimes.
Read moreFACTS The congressional storming
On January 6, 2021, the members of the United States Congress gathered in the Capitol to count the electoral votes of the presidential election and formally appoint Democrat Joe Biden as the winner and next president.
At the same time, tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump had gathered in the capital Washington DC for a political mass meeting on the theme “Save America”. At the meeting, Trump repeated his false claims of systematic voter fraud and claimed he was the real winner. He urged his supporters to go to Congress: “If you don’t get the hell out of you, you won’t have a country anymore,” said the then-president.
Parts of the crowd did as he said. The protests turned violent when hundreds of people stormed the congress building and clashed with police. Some made it as far as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and into one of the chambers. Parts of the building were vandalized.
Five people, including a policeman, lost their lives in connection with the attack.
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