WORLD
Donald Trump set to appear in court to face election conspiracy charges
Baku, August 3, AZERTAC
The arrest and arraignment of the former president will take place in a federal courthouse within sight of the US Capitol that was stormed by his supporters on January 6, 2021, in what prosecutors say was the culmination of the alleged plot, according to France 24.
The 77-year-old Trump is expected to enter a plea of not guilty at a hearing set to begin at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT) before magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya.
The accusations that Trump and six unnamed co-conspirators plotted to upend the 2020 election is the former president's third criminal indictment since March, and the most serious of the cases threatening to derail his 2024 White House bid.
Special counsel Jack Smith unveiled a 45-page indictment of Trump on Tuesday charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States and attempting to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims that he won the November 2020 election.
"The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud," the indictment said.
Trump is already scheduled to go on trial in Florida in May of next year on charges that he took top secret government documents to his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida and refused to return them.