Trump set to return to Washington for monumental court date — but a national

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday is expected to return to the epicenter of his alleged bid to overthrow the 2020 election to answer historic charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Trump will be arraigned after being indicted over a series of alleged schemes to thwart President Joe Biden’s victory and his conduct following the mob attack on the US Capitol.

Although this will not be the ex-president’s first trip back to the capital after snubbing Biden’s inauguration, the sight of his motorcade winding its way through Washington, DC, may trigger trauma still felt by residents over a dark day in history 31 months ago.

The hearing will be the latest twist in an extraordinary and historic saga surrounding an ex-president and front-runner for a major party nomination in 2024, who has so far been indicted in three separate criminal probes.

It is also a defining moment in the effort by government and judicial institutions to account for the worst attack on democracy in modern times.

Hundreds of Trump’s supporters have already faced a courtroom reckoning for their efforts to disrupt the certification of a democratic election. Now, it’s the alleged ringleader’s turn.

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The procedural hearing for Trump’s arraignment – which follows Tuesday’s bombshell indictment from special counsel Jack Smith – will take place at a federal courthouse near to where he told his supporters to “fight like hell” to save their country and just down the hill from the Capitol, which his crowd invaded on January 6, 2021.

Trump is expected to enter a plea of not guilty, as his lawyers prepare arguments that his claims of election fraud were protected by free speech and that he was simply following the advice of his lawyers, for instance in seeking to assemble alternative electors in key states. Trump’s team is also already arguing he will never get a fair trial in a city where he won only 5% of the vote in 2020 and that he often demonizes.

Thursday’s brief hearing before a magistrate judge will be closely watched for any clues as to the timing of a trial, given that Trump’s calendar is filling up with campaign events and two potential trials in other matters next year. His legal team has already signaled an attempt to delay proceedings until after the November 2024 election in which he could be the GOP nominee.

The hearing is the start of a legal process that represents the most significant push by the judicial system to call the ex-president to account for his attempt to hold onto power despite losing an election.

Hundreds of Trump supporters who were at the Capitol that day have been put on trial. Many have been convicted and some are currently serving significant jail terms. But Trump’s critics have been frustrated that the man who nurtured election conspiracy theories that led to the Capitol riot had so far escaped legal accountability. Some of those concerns have now been addressed – even if Trump has not been specifically charged by Smith with inciting an insurrection.

Trump faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Six co-conspirators are also named in the indictment but were not charged. CNN has established that they include Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and constitutional attorney John Eastman.

Thursday’s hearing represents a somber moment in American history. For the first time, the United States is getting ready to put on trial a president who apparently sought to eviscerate some of the most basic principles of the Constitution that he was sworn to preserve, protect…