The former president used a private jet, owned by the Trump Organization, to arrive in Washington.
Dubbed “Trump Force One” by the man himself, the massive Boeing 757 cost $100 million, according to reports.
It also received a facelift amid the indictments to include a new paint job with his name in gold at the front of the aircraft.
— Phillip M. Bailey
Trump arrives in the D.C. area, headed to the courthouse
The former president’s plane has touched down at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital.
Another Trump motorcade now heads to the federal courthouse in downtown Washington, where he will be arrested, arraigned, and likely released on bond.
The arraignment is scheduled for 4 p.m.; then he heads back to Bedminster, N.J.
-David Jackson
More press than protesters
Former President Donald Trump is expected to arrive at 4:00 p.m. for his arraignment at the federal courthouse in Washington, but less than two hours before his anticipated arrival members of the press continue to overwhelmingly outnumber protesters in front of the courthouse.
Several dozen journalists are waiting inside the courthouse for the hearing to begin, with countless more media personnel operating cameras outside.
While there have been no large demonstrations as of yet, a handful of anti-Trump and pro-Trump protesters have appeared outside the courthouse.
− Miles J. Herszenhorn
The former president’s plane is airborne from Newark to Washington, D.C. The flight should take no more than 90 minutes.
Trump’s motorcade departed earlier from his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., en route to the Newark airport for the flight to Washington, D.C., and his latest federal court arraignment.
Protesting all the way.
“I AM NOW GOING TO WASHINGTON, D.C., TO BE ARRESTED FOR HAVING CHALLENGED A CORRUPT, RIGGED, & STOLEN ELECTION,” he said in all-caps post on Truth Social. “IT IS A GREAT HONOR, BECAUSE I AM BEING ARRESTED FOR YOU. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Actually, Trump is accused of criminally conspiring with others to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden.
Trump’s plane is expected to take off from Newark at around 2 p.m.; it is expected to land near D.C. at around 3:30 p.m.
The arraignment at the federal courthouse in downtown Washington is scheduled for 4 p.m.
-David Jackson
No. Cameras and other broadcasting equipment are not allowed inside federal courtrooms, meaning today’s proceedings will not be televised.
Stephen Corson, 66, estimates he has stood on the corner outside the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington 40 times in the last few months.
On the day of Trump’s indictment, he plans to stand there all day. This indictment is different, he said.
“I think this one could possibly negatively affect him,” he said of Trump’s third indictment ahead of the 2024 election. “It’s like I’ve said to everybody, if they don’t knock him off of these indictments this election, they might just say he can’t run soon.”
Corson has spent every night in Washington, D.C. outside of the prison where rioters from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack have been detained. He holds a two-hour vigil each night protesting what he says has been their unfair treatment.
To him, Trump’s third indictment differs from the past two.
“It’s in the federal city. They’re making a big deal out of it. They’re allowing it to fester and grow and be a big deal,” he said.
– Rachel Looker
Hours before Donald Trump arrived for his third indictment, a smattering of Trump’s supporters gathered outside the courthouse in Washington to support the former president and criticize the charges Trump faces.
Daniel Demoura, 32, stood outside the courthouse clad in a t-shirt that read “free the J6 political prisoners.”
“The people have their own freedom of choice to do whatever they want and protest,” Demoura told USA TODAY, saying the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, made their own choices and weren’t incited by Trump. “I’m here, Trump didn’t tell me to come. I came because I support the man.”
-Ken Tran
Domenic Santana, 61, said he believes Trump should have been imprisoned and is not fit to hold office. Santana said he also appeared outside the courthouse where Trump was arraigned in Miami, Florida, last month in the classified documents case against him.
“The reality is the guy is a con artist,” Santana said. “He’s gotten away with it.”
Santana – a supporter of 2024 GOP candidate Chris Christie – said he supports the former New Jersey Gov. because he says what he means and means what he says.
“We got to look at another game plan to be able to beat Trump at his own game and since he plays dirty, I’m telling the Democrats to wake up, change parties and vote on the Republican primaries for Christie and get Trump out of there,” Santana said.
– Sudiksha Kochi
Bill Barr told CNN last night the former president “knew well that he had lost.”
“We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this,” Barr said. “I think there is a lot more to come, and I think they have a lot more evidence as to President Trump’s state of mind.”
Barr was attorney general during the Trump administration, years after serving in the position under President George H. W. Bush. He rejected Trump’s defense that he was simply exercising his right to free speech talking about the 2020 election.
“He brought this on himself,” Barr said. “This is one of the reasons I oppose him for the Republican nomination, because he has this penchant for engaging in these reckless acts that create calamitous situations and then undercut the cause he’s supposed to be leading.”
-Savannah Kuchar
Trump: It would be ‘very dangerous’ to put me in prison
Worries about violence permeate the atmosphere at the federal courthouse in Washington.
As the ex-president prepares to plead innocent to charges of attempted election theft, some are recalling a Trump comment last month that it would be “very dangerous” to put him in prison because his supporters might not stand for it.
“I think it’s a very dangerous thing to even talk about, because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters,” Trump told an Iowa radio show on July 18.
He added: “I think, uh, it would be very dangerous.”
In any event, Trump is a long way from prison.
Even if he is convicted in any of the cases against him, he would no doubt appeal and that process could take years.
-David Jackson
The three exclusive requirements to run for president are to be a natural-born citizen, to be at least 35 years old and to have been a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years, according to the U.S. Constitution.
Trump told reporters in March that he “won’t even think about leaving” the 2024 race despite his legal troubles.
Hours before his arraignment, Trump says he wants his Jan. 6 trial moved out of Democratic-dominated Washington, D.C., to more Republican-friendly territory, perhaps West Virginia.
“IMPOSSIBLE to get a fair trial in Washington, D.C., which is over 95% anti-Trump,” Trump said on his Truth Social account after suggesting West Virginia as an alternative.
It feels like a legal longshot, but venue will likely be one of many topics to be discussed in pre-trial motions and hearings.
In his post, Trump also said he he has “called for a Federal TAKEOVER in order to bring our Capital back to Greatness,” but didn’t explain what he meant.
Perhaps it was a reference to his 2024 presidential campaign.
One thing that’s different, so far, about this third arraignment: Trump has no post-plea event scheduled, at least not yet.
After previous arraignments in different cases in April and June, Trump hosted rallies at his homes. The first was at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., the second at his summer home on the golf course at Bedminster, N.J.
After his June arraignment in Miami, Trump also made an unscheduled stop at a local Cuban restaurant to soak up support from some of his voters.
As of now, the schedule calls for Trump to simply return to Bedminster after his court appearance in Washington, D.C. – though it seems likely that he will get his message out in some form or fashion.
-David Jackson
Mike Pence: Trump relied on ‘crackpot lawyers’
Former Vice President Mike Pence is mimicking Trump’s defense that he relied on legal advice in pursuing protests of the 2020 election – but he has a much different assessment of the former president’s attorneys themselves.
“President Trump and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to reject electoral votes and chaos would have ensued,” Pence said on the social media website X.
Pence has repeated his “crackpot” jibe in interviews and public comments. Trump responded by saying on Truth Social that “I feel badly for Mike Pence” and that “the V.P. had power that Mike didn’t understand.”
One of his ex-lawyers, John Eastman, fired back with an insult of his own, telling an interviewer that Pence chose to act like “a potted plant.”
-David Jackson
Advocates: Third indictment will ‘resonate more’ with Americans
Svante Myrick, president of People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy group, said Trump’s third indictment is the most important one out of the three he faces.
“This one he was trying to invalidate 80 million people’s votes,” he told USA TODAY, adding that the crimes the former president is accused of in the indictment are “the most serious I could imagine.”
Myrick said the third indictment resonates more with the American people because they watched the culmination of the crimes on their TV screens during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“This we all saw,”” he said.
He thinks Trump faces greater legal jeopardy for charges included in the third indictment than in other cases
“I for the first time thought oh Donald Trump might spend the rest of his life in prison because of what’s alleged,” he said.
Christian Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women, told USA TODAY Trump’s third indictment unveils the gravity behind his actions to voters.
“This indictment shows the seriousness of everything with the election. I think it’s more powerful and it’s putting more heat (on Trump) as people see everything as it starts to unfold,” Nunes said, adding she thought the indictment was “long overdue.”
– Rachel Looker and Ken Tran
On Monday, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge rejected a request from Trump to toss the findings of a special grand jury and disqualify Willis.
Details of the Georgia investigation that have become public have fed speculation that Willis, a Democrat, is building a case under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which would allow her to charge numerous people in a potentially wide-ranging scheme, according to the AP.
Willis’ investigation began more than two years ago, after a recording of Trump’s 2021 call to Georgia’s secretary of state asking him to “find” 11,780 votes.
That incident was part of Tuesday’s federal indictment, which alleged that Trump induced Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to alter the state’s count of the popular vote and questioned the validity of Biden’s electors’ votes.
Raffensperger on Wednesday declined to comment on the federal indictment.
Some Georgia Republican lawmakers dismissed it, with Republican Congressman Mike Collins saying it was a “sham prosecution” in statement posted on social media and calling for funding cuts to the DOJ.
Trump’s third indictment will in no way keep him off the Republican campaign trail – he has events coming up in two early primary states.
On Saturday, Trump is scheduled to headline the South Carolina Republican Party’s annual Silver Elephant Dinner in Columbia.
The Trump campaign has also announced that Trump will travel on Tuesday to New Hampshire to deliver a speech at a high school in Windham.
