The possibility of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign being led from prison is unprecedented and quite uncertain – intriguing developments in US politics
The courthouse where Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges against him, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, bears the name of Elijah Barrett Prettyman.
As a Washington lawyer, Prettyman fought for the release of prisoners captured in the Bay of Pigs invasion. He represented Truman Capote and John Lennon and argued 19 cases at the Supreme Court before his death, aged 91, in November 2016.
Five days later Donald Trump, a billionaire businessman turned reality TV star, was elected to the White House.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘This is persecution of a political opponent’
If Prettyman was among the minority who anticipated Trump’s victory, he surely couldn’t have imagined that seven years later this is where it would lead. Even those steeped in legal history have never seen, could never have imagined, an alleged criminal scheme like this. It is unprecedented.
The 45-page indictment unsealed on Tuesday presents four charges against Donald Trump. It is judicious in its content and meticulous in its detail but at its centre is one key allegation – that Trump orchestrated a scheme to overturn the results of a free and fair election, directly from the Oval Office.
The world’s media gathered outside the courthouse in Washington DC to await the arrival of the former president to answer these charges.
It was a balmy morning, sunny with a hint of indictment fatigue hanging heavy in the air, this being Donald Trump’s third arraignment in four months.
The helicopter pictures of his motorcade charted a familiar journey from home to courthouse, another hop down the east coast on Trump Force One, another wave to the cameras on the tarmac.
Source link
