Trump faces latest charges, just steps from the Capitol his supporters stormed

Two and a half years after a mob attacked the Capitol in his name, Donald Trump is making the trip down Pennsylvania Avenue he promised he’d make — but never did — on Jan. 6, 2021.

But this time, it’s to be arraigned in federal court.

Trump’s expected arrival on Thursday afternoon in Washington — to face charges that he sought to derail the transfer of power to Joe Biden — will bring him to the federal courthouse that sits just across the street from the Capitol his supporters defaced on Jan. 6. He’s expected to plead “not guilty” to four criminal charges leveled by special counsel Jack Smith.

Smith has accused Trump of orchestrating a breathtakingly broad campaign to unravel American democracy and cling to power despite decisively losing the 2020 election. In service of that goal, Smith says, Trump deputized six co-conspirators — including attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro — to carry out a campaign of disinformation, cloaked in legal action, to convince state legislatures, Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence to block Biden’s election.

Smith alleges that Trump used his unique platform as president to stoke false claims about election fraud and rile up supporters, harnessing their energy to pressure Republican elected officials to attempt to undo Biden’s victories in a handful of states. When that failed, Trump helped assemble slates of false presidential electors who would be used to stoke a conflict in the certification of Biden’s victory. Then, Trump and Eastman leaned on Pence — who would soon preside over Congress’ counting of electoral votes — to assert unprecedented authority to reject Biden’s electors or postpone the count altogether. The failure of that effort culminated in a burst of rage, with thousands of Trump’s faithful storming past police barricades and into the Capitol, while Trump — according to Smith — exploited the violence to continue salvaging his schemes.

As his supporters rioted, Trump wanted to join them, according to evidence amassed by the Jan. 6 select committee. Several witnesses described a heated altercation with Secret Service agents after they refused to take him to the Capitol because of security concerns. Instead, the Secret Service insisted he return to the White House, where he watched the attack unfold on television.

Smith has charged Trump with four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to deprive Americans of their right to a functional election process, conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ Jan. 6 proceedings and the carrying out of that obstruction effort.

His arraignment on Thursday is scheduled for 4 p.m. Trump, represented by attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro, is expected to face Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, who received the initial indictment from prosecutors on Tuesday. It will be Trump’s third arraignment on criminal charges since April but his first in Washington, D.C. There’s little of substance likely to occur beyond Trump’s initial plea in the case, but officials at the federal courthouse and the Capitol are bracing for crowds and potential security threats.

Street parking was heavily restricted, and a noticeable increase in security personnel was visible at the courthouse starting on Wednesday. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told reporters that his officers were “prepared” and had been coordinating with other law enforcement agencies for weeks ahead of Trump’s indictment in anticipation of the potential charges.

The case is expected to ultimately be handled by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama-appointed jurist who previously rejected Trump’s bid to block congressional Jan. 6 investigators from accessing his White House files.

Trump has railed against Smith’s charges, calling them politically motivated and contending he was following the advice of his lawyers as he pursued an increasingly perilous and destabilizing path to remain in power.