Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in a Washington DC court to conspiring to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

During a short arraignment, he spoke softly to confirm his not-guilty plea, name, age and that he was not under the influence of any substances.

He later told reporters the case was "persecution of a political opponent".

It marks the former president's third appearance in four months as a criminal defendant.

Mr Trump entered through a backdoor of the courthouse on Thursday afternoon in the centre of the nation's capital, just yards from the scene of the US Capitol riot that is central to the prosecution's case.

About 1,000 defendants charged with participating in the storming of Congress on 6 January 2021 have appeared in the same court building.

 

• Forced to wait, Trump is out of his comfort zone
• Voter panel: 'Indictment is pulling us apart'

 

The former president seemed to exchange glances across the court with Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the investigation.

 

FULL STORY

 

No surprise he plead not guilty he will never admit to trying to steal the election nor the grift of all that money from his base for his well deserved legal expenses.he stated never before in American history has this happened he is 100% correct in this sense that never before in American history has a president tried to steal the election and kill our democracy yup donald you are the first personality I for one hope you spend the rest of your days in the penitentiary 

55 minutes ago, Tug said:

No surprise he plead not guilty

Pleading 'Not Guilty' at an arraignment only means he /she is not going to plead 'Guilty' as charged.

 

Nothing more.

I can’t believe all the people that support him he will go down as the worst president in the history of America. Every time he talks is lying.

IMHO every time that Trump speak out he condemns himself and digs a deeper hole.

 

The really sad thing, is that millions of people believe every word he says.

His attorney went on that fake not-news network shortly after the arraignment and explicitly said 45 committed the crime of conspiracy. The idiot attorney, thinking he was being clever by working the court of public opinion, told the audience 45 had a pow wow with VP Pence and gave him several options on how to turn the election outcome. In front of corroborating witnesses! And Pence is starting to sing that song in public, loud and clear.

 

For gawd's sake, 45 committed the crimes, has been caught dead to rights, and thinks he can outmaneuver the likes of Jack Smith? These are truly the delusional acts of the galactically stupid. At least Nixon had the smarts to realize when he was beat and took the "get out of jail free" card offered. I honestly feel that 45 has finally met his match and will be fitted for the orange jumpsuit he so richly deserves.

For those interested, Trump currently faces 78 felony charges with more expected coming from Georgia. All in it will mean over 100 citizens sitting on three Grand Juries and four Trial Juries will have weighed the evidence presented, deliberated on the Prosecution and Defense presentations and make their decision. Any accusation that the result will be due to politics, I seriously reject.

Trump pleads not guilty. Another lie to add to the tens of thousands he's already told. 

Not much else he could do, but plead not guilty, perhaps he will buy a truck load of Big Macs and ball caps for the court assembly, every little helps........  ????

Don’t drop the soap Don. ????

A troll post has been removed.

This "person" is everything wrong with human beings, all stuffed into one oversized buffoon. It's just so surreal, gross, embarrassing, unbelievable and unacceptable that this very worst of the worst was elected POTUS. Worse yet is the MAGA Cult, which IS The Republican Party, still guzzle his BS shakes with relish...still accept and even defend this guy with a straight face. ????????????

2 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

This "person" is everything wrong with human beings, all stuffed into one oversized buffoon. It's just so surreal, gross, embarrassing, unbelievable and unacceptable that this very worst of the worst was elected POTUS. Worse yet is the MAGA Cult, which IS The Republican Party, still guzzle his BS shakes with relish...still accept and even defend this guy with a straight face. ????????????

The ball gargling from Graham and McCarthy is shameful. Graham is an attorney and KNOWS he's lying through his teeth. McCarthy is just a puppet performing whatever self-debasing acts his master tells him to. The few real 45 supporters I am forced to associate with to keep peace in the family admit they know 45 is a liar, and is "most likely guilty of all charges" (THEIR words!), but they just don't care. The racial epithets they throw around explains it all.

Not guilty  your honor! Ah ah!

22 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

The ball gargling from Graham and McCarthy is shameful. Graham is an attorney and KNOWS he's lying through his teeth. McCarthy is just a puppet performing whatever self-debasing acts his master tells him to. The few real 45 supporters I am forced to associate with to keep peace in the family admit they know 45 is a liar, and is "most likely guilty of all charges" (THEIR words!), but they just don't care. The racial epithets they throw around explains it all.

We used to call folks like graham and McCarthy sperm burpers or bag lickers. two useless groveling unamerican politicians if I ever saw them just think after all he’s done ,Covid,damage to our alliances,run up the debt,damage to our democracy,all the lies,on and on and on just truley beggars belief 

2 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

Smith plays chess..King Baby only knows checkers and always cheats anyway.....tick tock MF

Or, Trump is playing checkers and Smith is playing GO-surround and destroy.

10 hours ago, billd766 said:

The really sad thing, is that millions of people believe every word he says.

Worse than that, millions of people see him as more genuine than other candidates and standing against something that they have had too much of.

7 hours ago, harada said:

Don’t drop the soap Don. ????

Now there's an idea: send him "soap on a rope."

 

10 hours ago, billd766 said:

IMHO every time that Trump speak out he condemns himself and digs a deeper hole.

Every accusation is a confession.  My ex-wife was quick with that too, must be something they teach them in business school.

 

Dummy Donny still can't seem to understand the difference between prosecution and persecution. 

 

I watched a few bits form Fox on Utube yesterday about his being charged, processed and arraigned for trial and they totally lost their sh!t about it lol ????????

It was both hilarious for me (as an intelligent well red and critically thinking adult with both reason and sanity), and a tragedy for the American people who watch and believe their unadulterated lies and rubbish. 

 

Donny the fake-tanned traitor is in deep deep trouble. 

On 8/5/2023 at 12:27 AM, BangkokReady said:

Worse than that, millions of people see him as more genuine than other candidates and standing against something that they have had too much of.

It is bizarre how he's seen that way by millions. He ran as a  populist who subsequently cut taxes and who appointed pro-corporate anti-worker justices to the Supreme court. Conglomerates, Wall St,  Bankers, and polluters rarely, if ever, had a better friend in the White House than they had in Donald Trump.

6 minutes ago, placeholder said:

It is bizarre how he's seen that way by millions. He ran as a  populist who subsequently cut taxes and who appointed pro-corporate anti-worker justices to the Supreme court. Conglomerates, Wall St,  Bankers, and polluters rarely, if ever, had a better friend in the White House than they had in Donald Trump.

His core fan cult base are like turkeys cheering on Thanksgiving. 

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

His core fan cult base are like turkeys cheering on Thanksgiving. 

At least he Turkeys have a brain cell or two!

6 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

At least he Turkeys have a brain cell or two!

Smart turkeys. Sounds like fake news.

24 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Smart turkeys. Sounds like fake news.

At least the Turkeys know that eventually they are going to get fed as much as they can take and then end up well and truly stuffed!

6 hours ago, placeholder said:

It is bizarre how he's seen that way by millions.

I think it's more a testament to the fact that not only are a lot of views that some try to play off as "right-wing talking points" or "conspiracy theories", actually very much commonly held opinions, but also a lot of far-left views that some think of as being held by the majority are actually those of a very noisy and intimidating minority.

 

The ballot is secret and this is why it is a much more honest reflection of what people actually think than some garbage on social media where anything that goes against the narrative is mislabelled and deleted.

Edited August 7, 20232 yr by BangkokReady

12 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

I think it's more a testament to the fact that not only are a lot of views that some try to play off as "right-wing talking points" or "conspiracy theories", actually very much commonly held opinions, but also a lot of far-left views that some think of as being held by the majority are actually those of a very noisy and intimidating minority.

 

The ballot is secret and this is why it is a much more honest reflection of what people actually think than some garbage on social media where anything that goes against the narrative is mislabelled and deleted.

That's precisely what makes it so bizaerre, Instead of issues that have a powerful impact on the quality of their lives that government can effectively address like wages, health  care, pollution, worker safety, and Social Security,  so many Americans voters are swayed by issues like wokeness to the detriment of their own financial and physical well being.

32 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

I think it's more a testament to the fact that not only are a lot of views that some try to play off as "right-wing talking points" or "conspiracy theories", actually very much commonly held opinions, but also a lot of far-left views that some think of as being held by the majority are actually those of a very noisy and intimidating minority.

 

The ballot is secret and this is why it is a much more honest reflection of what people actually think than some garbage on social media where anything that goes against the narrative is mislabelled and deleted.

I assume you mean the ballot that US voters used to hand Trump a decisive defeat in 2020.

Edited August 7, 20232 yr by heybruce

5 minutes ago, placeholder said:

That's precisely what makes it so bizaerre, Instead of issues that have a powerful impact on the quality of their lives that government can effectively address like wages, health  care, pollution, worker safety, and Social Security,  so many Americans voters are swayed by issues like wokeness to the detriment of their own financial and physical well being.

It's hardly surprising, nor unique.  look at the lengths people are going to try and keep Biden as a viable candidate, regardless of his actual suitability for the role.

23 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

I think it's more a testament to the fact that not only are a lot of views that some try to play off as "right-wing talking points" or "conspiracy theories", actually very much commonly held opinions, but also a lot of far-left views that some think of as being held by the majority are actually those of a very noisy and intimidating minority.

 

The ballot is secret and this is why it is a much more honest reflection of what people actually think than some garbage on social media where anything that goes against the narrative is mislabelled and deleted.

I think it's more a testament to the fact that not only are a lot of views that some try to play off as "right-wing talking points" or "conspiracy theories", actually very much commonly held opinions

 

Yet a quarter of republicans do believe in far out conspiracy theories:

 

"Satan-worshipping pedophiles running a global sex-trafficking operation control the U.S. government, media and financial institutions. A storm is coming to sweep away the elites and restore the rightful leader of the country. And things are so off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save the country."

 

"a quarter of Republicans agree with those sentiments, according to a PRRI report released Thursday that was based on data from four separate polls it conducted."

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-02-24/a-quarter-of-republicans-believe-central-views-of-qanon-conspiracy-movement

10 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

It's hardly surprising, nor unique.  look at the lengths people are going to try and keep Biden as a viable candidate, regardless of his actual suitability for the role.

Let's see, on one side is a career politician with decades of experience, including eight years as Vice President, currently serving as President and getting important things done.

 

On the other is a businessman/conman/reality TV host with multiple bankruptcies and out of court settlements, currently facing multiple felony charges, whose only experience in government is four chaotic years as President.

 

I definitely choose Biden.