Former US President D. Trump indictet, including conspiracy to defraud the US, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of US-citizens

criminal trial *US vs. Donald Trump ,* august 2023

Trump is charged with:

Conspiracy to defraud the United States;
Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding;
Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and
Conspiracy against the right to vote and have one’s vote counted.
On Aug. 3, 2023, Trump pleaded not guilty as his arraignment in Washington, D.C.

Former US President Donald Trump will be formally charged at a court hearing later for allegedly plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Mike Pence, the former vice president, said in a Fox News interview that Trump and his advisers had tried to get him “essentially to overturn the election” and that the American people needed to know it (Aug. 3rd, 2023)

Mr Trump, 77, is due to appear at a federal courthouse in Washington DC on 3 July 2023 at 16:00 EDT (20:00 GMT).

It is **expected that he will** attend in person and plead **not guilty**.

On the eve of the arraignment he slammed the case as proof of the "corruption, scandal, and failure" of the US under Joe Biden's presidency.

Mr Trump already faces two other criminal cases as he campaigns for the White House next year (2024).

In this latest indictment, Mr Trump faces four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.

A spokesman for the US Marshals Service, a federal law enforcement agency that guards courts, told Reuters news agency that Mr Trump would be fingerprinted and asked to provide basic information, such as his date of birth and Social Security ID number.

Mr Trump appeared before Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, while another judge, Tanya Chutkan, will handle the criminal trial.

Trump said on the airport tarmac after courtarraignment that the case is a "persecution of a political opponent" to hurt his chance of re-election in 2024.

### … and his allies

Speaking outside the court just before today’s hearing, Trump's attorney Alina Habba rattled off a timeline of news events and allegations against President Biden, implying a vast conspiracy of tit-for-tat legal action guided from the top.

“This is election interference at its finest against the leading candidate right now for president,” she said.
“President Trump is under siege in a way that we have never seen before.”

The theme was quickly picked up by Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress – including Ohio Senator JD Vance and Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene both of whom repeated the “election interference” phrase on X, formerly known as Twitter.

It seems that a big part of the former president’s strategy – at least in public, if not in court – will be to skirt around the substance of the charges at hand and instead engage in whataboutery.

### Witness tampering is …

… the act of attempting to improperly *influence, alter or prevent the testimony* of witnesses within criminal or civil proceedings. Witness tampering and reprisals against witnesses in organized crime cases have been a difficulty faced by prosecutors; witness protection programs were one response to this problem. In the United States, the federal crime of witness tampering is defined by statute at 18 U.S.C. § 1512, which is entitled *"tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant."*

* cit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness\_tampering

### About recusal in the US

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial\_disqualification

### Weblinks

* (via ….democracydocket.com/) Documents
* Trump plädiert bei Anklageverlesung auf "nicht schuldig". Die Zeit, 3. Aug.23

* Ece Goksedef (bbc): Donald Trump says he will ask election judge to step aside. Aug. 6, 2023

See also:

* timeline
* Georgia election interference case