Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday in Washington D.C. after being indicted for a third time over his conduct regarding the 2020 election, multiple outlets reported.
Trump was charged Tuesday with “Conspiracy to defraud the United States,” “Conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 proceedings” and “A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.” The former president appeared Thursday afternoon at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, will preside over the case.
“This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by substantial margins,” Trump’s campaign said in a statement at the time of the indictment.
In July, Trump announced that special prosecutor Jack Smith had sent him a letter, letting him know he was under investigation for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Later that month, Republican Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison and a group of House Republicans sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling on him to provide documents related to Smith’s conflicts of interest review.
“Mr. Smith has a history of questionable political prosecutions, including the prosecution of former Republican governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell, which was unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “Furthermore, Smith’s wife, Katy Chevigny, produced a documentary about former First Lady Michelle Obama and donated to President Biden’s 2020 campaign, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest for Mr. Smith.”
Trump is currently the defendant in two other criminal cases related to an alleged hush money payment and to his storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. He is also under investigation for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Trump loves America so much he’s taking a chance of going to prison. What a crying shame, when all he wanted to do is make American great again and he did that in his first term.