Elections
Breaking from his usual evasiveness when asked about his stance on Donald Trump’s claims of a “stolen” election, Ron DeSantis rejected the notion without mentioning his leading rival.
By CHRISTINE MUI
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday dismissed the theories of election fraud central to former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election as “unsubstantiated.”
Breaking from his usual evasiveness when asked about his stance on Trump’s claims of a “stolen” election, DeSantis rejected the notion without mentioning his leading rival for the Republican presidential nomination.
“I’ve said many times the election is what it is,” he said, responding to a reporter’s question after a campaign event in Iowa. “All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true.”
The governor went on to clarify that the 2020 election was not “conducted the way I think that we want to, but that’s different than saying ‘Maduro stole votes,’ or something like that.”
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POLITICO asked seven incumbents, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), expected to face competitive reelections in 2024 to weigh in on the charges but heard nothing in response, only Sinema’s team replied — with a no comment. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo
congress
Their silence stands in contrast to many other Democrats.
By ANTHONY ADRAGNA and DANIELLA DIAZ
The Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats are steering clear of the week’s biggest news: the third indictment of former President Donald Trump.
POLITICO asked seven incumbents expected to face competitive reelections in 2024 to weigh in on the charges but heard nothing in response. Of Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), only Sinema’s team replied — with a no comment.
Their silence stands in contrast to many other Democrats — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who quickly weighed in Tuesday with a joint statement alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling the Jan. 6 Capitol riot “the culmination of a months-long criminal plot led by the former president.”
It’s a tricky balancing act for the seven endangered lawmakers, all of whom need to win over independents and even Republicans to win their Senate races. However popular Trump’s indictments may be among Democrats, piling on the former president isn’t a winning strategy for incumbents who need to reach beyond the party base in order to keep their jobs. Manchin, Tester and Brown are all defending seats Trump carried in 2020: West Virginia (39 points); Montana (16 points); and Ohio (8 points). President Joe Biden did carry Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona, but only narrowly.
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This artist sketch depicts former President Donald Trump (center) conferring with defense lawyer Todd Blanche (left) during his appearance at the Federal Courthouse in Washington, on Aug. 3, 2023, as Trump defense lawyer John Lauro faces U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith sits at far left. | Dana Verkouteren via AP
Trump Indictment
The former president sat at the very same courtroom table that has been occupied by Jan. 6 defendants who stormed the Capitol in his name.
By KYLE CHENEY
If you blinked, you missed it.
For a fleeting moment Thursday, Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith — the man who could put him in prison — appeared to make eye contact as the former president prepared to fend off charges that he sought to subvert American democracy itself.
That shared glance crystallized the historic weight of Thursday’s arraignment, the third in recent months for the former president who is fighting federal and local prosecutors even as he appears to be coasting to the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Smith said nothing audible during his hour in the room, but repeatedly shot glances at Trump, who occasionally shot them back until their eyes briefly met.
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Members of Blacks for Trump speak with One America News Network near the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 3, 2023, ahead of former President Donald Trump’s arraignment. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Trump Indictment
The ex-president tried to make the best political situation of his arraignment. But it’s hard to do that from inside a courthouse.
By ALEX ISENSTADT
Donald Trump came to Washington D.C. on Thursday to be arraigned for the third trial he’s faced this year.
But the day wasn’t strictly spent on legal matters. His team treated it as a political one too, with care given to all of the history and theatrics that accompany an ex-president’s booking at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse.
Trump arrived aboard his jet in the afternoon, decked in a standard blue suit and red tie with a full team in tow. Top aides Chris LaCivita, Susie Wiles, Jason Miller and Boris Epshteyn were there. So too was Alina Habba, his lawyer and main legal spokesperson.
Aides shot video footage of the arrival from the plane, while his operation blasted screen grabs of the cable news networks, all of them hyper focused on Trump’s arrival and motorcade ride through downtown D.C.
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Trump Indictment
At the former president’s arraignment, prosecutors and defense lawyers signaled immediate disagreement over how quickly he should stand trial.
By KYLE CHENEY and BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN
Updated
Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges accusing him of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to try to derail the transfer of power after the 2020 election.
With hundreds of eyes fixed on him — including from several federal judges who lined the back of the wood-paneled courtroom — Trump stood and declared himself “not guilty” of the sweeping four-count case prosecutors have leveled against him.
During the tense, 27-minute proceeding, Trump was seated just 20 feet from special counsel Jack Smith, the man attempting to convict him in two federal prosecutions that could result in lengthy prison sentences. For a moment as they awaited the start of the arraignment, the two appeared to make eye contact.
Though much of the proceeding was carefully scripted and choreographed, a significant point of tension immediately emerged: How soon will Trump stand trial?
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Nicky Sundt of Washington, D.C., demonstrates outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 3, 2023, ahead of former President Donald Trump’s arraignment. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Legal
One popular attraction for passersby and the media was a person dressed up in an inflatable baby Trump costume, mimicking the voice of the former president.
By ANDREW ZHANG
Updated
Donald Trump arrived with little fanfare on Thursday afternoon to be arraigned for federal charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election, as a few hundred people with little apparent partisan juice lined the streets waiting for his arrival outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington. A small handful of vocal supporters and protesters were also on hand.
While the crowd slowly grew throughout the day, mostly thanks to curious onlookers passing through, as of about 5 p.m. only around a dozen supporters of the former president were outside the courthouse, brandishing Trump 2024 flags, calling for the release of Jan. 6 “political prisoners” and wearing red hats. On the street, a few cars passed by carrying the same banners of support. The large majority of onlookers seemingly had no idea that Trump had arrived shortly after 3 or had left after he was arraigned, and they did not express any support or opposition.
There were about a dozen celebratory counterprotesters as well, playing music and holding signs that read “Lock Him Up,” while others mocked the former president while dressed in their best Trump garb. They also had a mini rock concert later in the afternoon.
One of Trump’s supporters told POLITICO he was not surprised about the low turnout, citing what he perceived as persecution of Trump’s base.
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Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service agents patrol the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Trump Indictment
Trump is headed to the federal courthouse that sits just across the street from the Capitol for his third arraignment on criminal charges.
By KYLE CHENEY
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.
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Trump Indictment
“I doubt he remembers all the different versions of events he has given over the last few years,” the former attorney general said.
By LUCY HODGMAN
Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Wednesday he does not believe the defense that former President Donald Trump was following the advice of counsel in his Jan. 6 decision-making would hold up if the former president took the stand in court.
Trump was indicted on Tuesday, after an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith concluded that he had conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election by attempting to exploit the 2021 assault on the Capitol.
Barr, who resigned as Trump’s attorney general weeks after the election in December 2020, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that he did not think it would be a credible defense for Trump to say that he was following the advice of advisers like the unspecified co-conspirators mentioned in the indictment.
“It would not come out very well for him” if Trump took the stand on that defense, Barr said. “I think he’d be subject to very skilled cross examination, and I doubt he remembers all the different versions of events he has given over the last few years.”
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The indictment against former President Donald Trump charging him by the Justice Department for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, pictured. | Jon Elswick/AP Photo
Trump Indictment
Of the more than six dozen felonies that Trump is accused of, many often result in harsh sentences.
By ERICA ORDEN
Donald Trump now faces 78 felony charges across three criminal cases — many of them carrying the potential for hefty prison time.
If Trump were convicted on all counts and given the maximum statutory penalty for each one, he would face a whopping 641 years in prison. And that’s not counting additional criminal charges he may face in Georgia, where the district attorney in Fulton County may be on the verge of indicting him this month.
But the reality of any prison term that Trump could plausibly receive is far more complicated.
In both state and federal courts, judges have wide latitude in sentencing. None of the crimes Trump has been charged with carry a mandatory minimum sentence, and defendants with no prior criminal record — a status that, at least for now, applies to Trump — rarely receive the maximum. And if the 77-year-old former president were convicted of multiple counts within the same case, any sentences for those counts might run simultaneously, rather than being stacked on top of each other.
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“With regard to the substance of the indictment,” former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday, “I’ve been very clear: I had hoped it wouldn’t come to that. … But now it’s been brought in a criminal indictment.” | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
Elections
The former vice president stood by his criticism of Trump on Wednesday, and called his former boss’ one-time lawyers “crackpots.”
By ADAM WREN, SALLY GOLDENBERG and NATALIE ALLISON
Updated
For much of the first 54 days of his presidential campaign, Mike Pence has been relegated to the contest’s lower tier, fighting for scraps and single-digit polls at a crowded table featuring Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.
On day 55, the former vice president took the main stage.
The indictment of Trump by special counsel Jack Smith for his efforts to undermine the 2020 election, placed a sharper focus on Pence’s actions leading up to and on Jan. 6, including the revelation that he kept contemporaneous notes. It also elevated the idea that Pence himself would be a litmus test for the rest of the field: Would they have made a different decision that day?
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Pence showed no regrets or equivocations in the hours after Smith unveiled his indictment.
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On Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Trump Indictment
The United States “had never seen an indictment of this magnitude,” The New York Times Editorial Board wrote.
By KIERRA FRAZIER
Newspaper editorial boards across the nation largely gave their rubber stamp of approval to former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment after federal prosecutors charged him Tuesday with conspiring to seize a second term after losing the 2020 election.
The morning after Trump’s indictment was handed down, editorial boards such as the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board called the indictment “especially grave.”
“Indicting a former president is a traumatic event for the nation, but so was Trump’s multifaceted attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election,” The LA Times Editorial Board wrote, adding, “despite what Trump may think, it is perfectly appropriate for prosecutors to seek to hold him accountable for alleged violations of criminal law, just as they have with those who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
On Tuesday, special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
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Photos by Francis Chung/POLITICO; Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo | Francis Chung/POLITICO; Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo
politics
Thirteen legal and political experts on why the third indictment might just matter.
By POLITICO MAGAZINE
Updated
Another day, another indictment of Donald Trump. That’s certainly how it’s starting to feel.
But could this time be different?
Until recently, no American president had ever been charged with a crime. Now, it’s happened three times to Trump in the span of a few months. It’s unprecedented, with potentially long-lasting consequences for our politics and the law. In the near term, one might expect the legal onslaught to do real damage to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Yet the previous indictments haven’t hurt him in the Republican primary and may have even boosted his polling numbers and donations.
But this indictment is on more serious charges — an attack on American democracy. Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election amounted to a conspiracy to defraud the United States and led directly to the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to federal prosecutors. Jan. 6 “was fueled by lies,” special counsel Jack Smith said in announcing the indictment, “lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.” That may be harder for at least some voters to dismiss than an episode involving hush money to a porn star or holding on to some government documents.
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U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan. | POLITICO Illustration
Legal
The judge selected for Trump’s new criminal case handled routine matters Wednesday, even as her newest and biggest assignment lurked in the background.
By KYLE CHENEY
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan appeared upbeat in court on Wednesday even as she reckoned with the weight of her latest assignment: criminal proceedings against Donald Trump.
During an appearance in an unrelated criminal matter, Chutkan briefly chatted with public defender Eugene Ohm, implicitly referencing the case that is likely to change her life, and the nation.
“How are you?” Ohm asked Chutkan, who was randomly assigned on Tuesday to preside over special counsel Jack Smith’s new case against the former president.
“Good … I think,” she said after a pregnant pause.
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legal
“This is an attack on free speech and political advocacy. And there’s nothing that’s more protected under the First Amendment than political speech,” John Lauro said.
By ANDREW ZHANG
Donald Trump’s lawyer, John Lauro, said the indictment brought against the former president for conspiring to seize a second term after losing the 2020 election was an attack on “free speech” and “political speech.”
“This is an attack on free speech and political advocacy. And there’s nothing that’s more protected under the First Amendment than political speech,” Lauro said on CNN Tuesday evening. “Our defense is going to be focusing on the fact that what we have now is an administration that has criminalized the free speech and advocacy of a prior administration during the time that there’s a political election going on. That’s unprecedented.”
He also said that Trump may enter lengthy court proceedings on the indictment, handed down from special counsel Jack Smith, in the midst of what he depicted as politically motivated investigations.
“I can see it lasting nine months or a year, but Mr. Trump is entitled to a defense. The government has had three years to investigate this, and now they want to rush this to trial in the middle of a political season,” Lauro said. “For the government to have three years to do it and then expect us to do it in three weeks or four weeks is just ridiculous.”
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“What we see today are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president,” Tim Scott said. | Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images
Trump Indictment
Perhaps the most interesting statement came from Mike Pence.
By RYAN LIZZA
Former President Donald Trump’s rivals for the GOP presidential nomination were quick to issue statements Tuesday evening after federal prosecutors charged him with conspiring to seize a second term after losing the 2020 election.
Most respected the dominant view of the GOP base that Trump is being railroaded:
Tim Scott was among those pivoting to Hunter Biden: “What we see today are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president.”
Vivek Ramaswamy repeated his promise to pardon Trump and said Jan. 6 was the result of censorship: “Donald Trump isn’t the cause of what happened on Jan 6. The real cause was systematic & pervasive censorship of citizens in the year leading up to it.”
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) defended her decision to vote to convict Trump in 2021 for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection in a series of tweets posted Tuesday evening. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Trump Indictment
The Alaska Republican, who won reelection last year, was one of seven senators in her party who voted to convict the former president in 2021 after his second impeachment by the House.
By MATT BERG
Updated
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the first Republican lawmaker who had voted to convict former President Donald Trump to publicly speak out about his third indictment as of Wednesday morning.
Murkowski, in a series of social media posts shortly after the indictment was handed down Tuesday evening, defended her decision to vote to convict Trump in a February 2021 Senate trial — following his second impeachment by the House — for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, saying that she voted based on “clear evidence that he attempted to overturn the 2020 election after losing it.”
“Additional evidence presented since then, including by the January 6 Commission, has only reinforced that the former President played a key role in instigating the riots, resulting in physical violence and desecration of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” she said.
Trump was indicted for a third time on Tuesday when federal prosecutors charged him with conspiring to seize a second term after losing the 2020 election.
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Former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Republican Party of Iowa’s 2023 Lincoln Dinner at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 28, 2023. | Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images
Trump Indictment
Meet Tanya Chutkan, the Obama appointee who was randomly chosen to preside over Trump’s newest case.
By KYLE CHENEY and JOSH GERSTEIN
When Judge Tanya Chutkan presides over the new criminal case against Donald Trump, it won’t be her first time tangling with the former president and his lawyers.
In fact, the U.S. district court judge already dealt the ex-president one of the most significant legal blows of his lifetime, triggering perhaps the greatest deluge of evidence about his bid to subvert the 2020 election — a scheme for which he now stands charged with serious crimes.
The Obama-appointed jurist ruled in fall 2021 that the House Jan. 6 select committee could access reams of Trump’s White House files — a ruling that was subsequently upheld by an appeals court and left undisturbed by the Supreme Court. That evidence — call logs, memos, internal strategy papers and more from the desks of Trump’s most trusted advisers — became the backbone of the committee’s evidence and shaped much of the public’s understanding of his effort to seize a second term he didn’t win.
Much of that evidence resurfaced Tuesday in special counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment of Trump, which referenced call logs and White House records that were already familiar to Americans who tracked the Jan. 6 committee proceedings. Chutkan was randomly selected Tuesday to preside over Trump’s latest criminal case, his third in the last four months.
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