Trump appears in Washington courtroom and pleads not guilty to all four charges against him

Donald Trump appeared in court on Thursday in Washington for arraignment concerning his latest charges. The former president arrived at the federal court in the afternoon to be officially indicted. He was formally charged with four counts, which stemmed from the investigation led by Jack Smith concerning what happened after the 2020 presidential election: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.

All charges were approved by a federal grand jury earlier this week when the news became official: the former president would be indicted again. This is the latest addition to his collection of court cases, which also includes charges regarding classified documents, falsification of financial records and potentially the Fulton County, Georgia case.

Trump began the day by traveling from New Jersey to Washington DC, later making his way to the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, located very close to the Capitol. The motorcade carrying him arrived at the courthouse around 3:15 p.m., where he was booked and read the charges against him. He also appeared briefly before Magistrate Moxila Upadhyaya to plead not guilty. However, the judge assigned was Tanya Chutkan, whom the former president knows from a recent case.

"Look, it's not my fault that my political opponent in the Democratic Party, corrupt Joe Biden, has told his attorney general to charge the leading Republican candidate (by far!) and former President of the United States, me, with as many crimes as he can come up with," the Republican tweeted before he arrived in DC.

The indictment is 45 pages long and resulted from an extensive investigation, which featured a parade of high-profile witnesses, including Mike Pence and Gary Michael Brown, a senior official in Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.

The Republican presidential candidate has experienced three similar situations with the justice system since April. This is now his third indictment of 2023, when no former president had been formally charged.

The first case, brought by New York City prosecutors, was for falsification of business records. The second, by Jack Smith, had to do with classified documents that were in his Florida home, while the most recent one addresses his actions after the 2020 presidential election.

How did Trump respond?

Trump left the courthouse hours later and headed straight to the airport, where he boarded a plane back to his golf club in New Jersey. He also took the opportunity to comment on the case, which he had already criticized before arriving.

"This is a very sad day for America, and it was also very sad to drive through Washington, DC," he expressed under an umbrella.

"It's a very sad thing to see. When you look at what is going on, this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in the United States," he added.