Donald Trump is due to appear in court on Thursday after federal prosecutors indicted the former US president for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Democrats welcoming the criminal charges as Republicans rallied behind him.
Prosecutors in Washington will outline the four conspiracy and obstruction counts and a judge will set bail conditions in the latest criminal case involving the ex-president, weeks after he was charged with putting government secrets at risk.
In Trump’s third appearance in a courtroom as a criminal defendant, the magistrate judge Moxila Upadhyaya will set a schedule for pre-trial motions and discovery. Both sides are likely later to file motions seeking to shape what evidence and legal arguments will be permitted at trial, which could be many months away.
The former president stands accused of “obstructing a bedrock function of the US government – the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election”.
In a possible preview of Trump’s defence, his lawyer John Lauro called the indictment “an attack on free speech and political advocacy”, implying Trump’s lies about election fraud were protected under the constitutional right to freedom of expression. Lauro told CNN the indictment was “an effort to not only criminalise, but also to censor free speech”.
Trump’s lies fueled a deadly riot by supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The long-awaited charges are the first related to actions taken by an American president in office – and set up a collision course between the justice system and a potentially volatile election in November next year.
Many Republicans – elected officials and voters – have unashamedly backed Trump, seeking to portray the charges against him as a politically motivated prosecution and a Democratic plot to derail his re-election bid.
That pattern largely held after Tuesday’s indictment, which was brought by the special counsel Jack Smith and filed in federal district court in Washington.
Trump set the tone on his Truth Social platform: “This unprecedented indictment of a former (highly successful!) president and the leading candidate, by far, in both the Republican party and the 2024 general election, has awoken the world to the corruption, scandal, and failure that has taken place in the United States for the past three years.”
The House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, called the indictment an attempt “to distract from news” about Republican allegations of corruption involving Hunter Biden, the president’s son, “and attack the frontrunner” to face Joe Biden next year.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, Trump’s leading rival for the nomination, said he had not read the indictment but vowed to “end the weaponisation of the federal government”.
DeSantis did not mention Trump by name but promised to “ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans”, adding: “One of the reasons our country is in decline is the politicisation of the rule of law.”
The latest charges mean Trump has been impeached twice, arrested twice and indicted three times: over attempted election subversion, hush-money payments to a porn actor, and the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Despite the charges – and the prospect of more, over alleged election subversion in Georgia – Trump leads Republican polling by more than 30 points. Nothing prevents criminal defendants from campaigning or taking office if they are convicted.
Strategists said that while the indictments could help Trump win the Republican nomination, they could prove less helpful in next year’s election, when he will have to win over moderates and independents.
Republican condemnation of Trump was rare. Will Hurd, a former Texas congressman, said Trump’s presidential bid was “driven by an attempt to stay out of prison and scam his supporters into footing his legal bills”.
Hurd added: “Furthermore, his denial of the 2020 election results and actions on 6 January show he’s unfit for office.” If Republicans “make the upcoming election about Trump, we are giving Joe Biden another four years in the White House”, he said.
Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president, who refused to bow to pressure not to certify the election results and fled the mob at the Capitol, said the latest indictment was “an important reminder anyone who puts himself over the constitution should never be president of the United States”, adding that Trump’s candidacy meant “more distractions”.
The indictment listed several conversations in which Trump attempted to persuade Pence to delay certification or reject presidential electors. In one call, on 1 January 2021, Trump told Pence: “You’re too honest.”
Most Republicans, however, backed the former president. The South Carolina senator Tim Scott claimed that “Biden’s justice department” was “hunting Republicans, while protecting Democrats”.
Byron Donalds of Florida, a hard-right Trump ally in the US House, said Trump was the victim of “selective use of … the federal government” while prosecutors “concoct sweetheart deals for Hunter [Biden], Hillary [Clinton] and the rest of the Democrat darlings”.
Democratic reactions reflected the deep divide in US politics. Nancy Pelosi, a former House speaker who oversaw Trump’s impeachments, said the charges outlined “a sinister plot”.
The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and the Democratic Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, said the indictment “illustrates in shocking detail … a months-long criminal plot led by the former president to defy democracy and overturn the will of the American people”.
Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called the latest charges “the most significant [Trump] has yet faced because they address the most serious offense he committed: trying to block the peaceful transfer of power and keep himself in office”.
The case was assigned to the district judge Tanya Chutkan, a former assistant public defender nominated by Barack Obama.
Chutkan has handed down prison sentences in January 6 riot cases harsher than prosecutors recommended. She ruled against Trump in a separate January 6 case, refusing his request to block the release of documents to a House committee investigating the attack.
In a memorable line from her ruling, Chutkan wrote: “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president.”