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Washington: Former president Donald Trump is expected to appear in the US federal courthouse at the foot of Capitol Hill, the site of a lengthy government effort to hold accountable those who tried to subvert democracy.
Trump’s appearance before Moxila A Upadhyaya, a federal judge, in the early hours of Friday Australian time, comes about six weeks after his arraignment in Miami on charges of mishandling government documents after he left the White House and seeking to block investigators.
Trump on his way to court in Miami, Florida in June, 2023. Credit: AP
His second federal indictment is likely to follow a cadence similar to his first.
The former president will fly down on his private jet from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He is expected to arrive at the E Barrett Prettyman courthouse, the venue for dozens of trials stemming from the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The US Marshals Service, which is responsible for security inside federal courthouses, will escort him to an area where he will be booked, for a third time this year. (He was arraigned in New York in the spring in connection with a hush-money payment to a pornographic actress before the 2016 election.)
The sheriff in Fulton County, Georgia, where another potential indictment connected to Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election looms, has suggested that if Trump is charged, he will be processed like anybody else, mug shot and all.
That will not happen Thursday: The marshals did not photograph Trump in Miami, and they will not take his picture in Washington, according to a law enforcement official involved in the planning.
But federal rules dictate that an accused person be reprocessed in each jurisdiction in which he or she faces charges, so Trump will have to be fingerprinted for a second time using an electronic scanning device. He is also expected to answer a series of intake questions that include personal details, such as his age.
As of late Wednesday, there have been no credible threats of organised efforts to disrupt the proceedings, a senior federal law enforcement official said, although officials expect pro-Trump demonstrations and are on the lookout for individuals or small groups that may act violently.
Trump is embroiled in seven cases in several jurisdictions involving:
The level of security, both outside the building and inside, is likely to be among the most intense ever deployed at a federal courthouse, officials said.
Federal law enforcement agencies are coordinating with the city’s Metropolitan Police Department to guard the building and to block off some of the surrounding streets.
And the courtroom itself will be packed with security. Trump, as always, will be accompanied by his Secret Service detail. The marshals will be present to protect the judge and special counsel Jack Smith should he attend the hearing, as he did in Miami.
The hearing should be relatively straightforward.
Trump will be asked to enter a plea — what many anticipate will be not guilty — in response to the four-count indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Then the government will be asked to present conditions for his release.
In the Florida case, government officials requested no bail and no restrictions on his travel, acknowledging his status as a leading candidate for the 2024 presidential Republican nomination.
There are no indications that they plan to change their request this time.
But there might be a wrinkle or two. In Miami, the judge, Jonathan Goodman, amended the bond deal reached between the two sides because it did not include restrictions on Trump’s contact with potential witnesses and his co-defendant Walt Nauta, who continues to work for him in some capacity.
The former president and his allies have accused Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Smith, without evidence, of conspiring to destroy his chances of reelection by weaponising federal law enforcement against him. And his team has made it clear that it does not think it can get a fair trial in Washington, an overwhelmingly Democratic city.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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