In a courtroom showdown, former President Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith briefly locked eyes inside after sizing each other up.
It was one of the storylines as Trump pleaded not guilty yesterday to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss.
The casual greeting made by U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhaya when she addressed the defendant as “Mr. Trump” also caused a stir over the lack of protocol.
“Every other president would have been addressed as ‘President’ not ‘Mr.’… Let’s be real,” Daily Caller’s chief national correspondent Henry Rodgers tweeted.
The indictment charges Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges could lead to a lengthy prison sentence in the event of a conviction, with the most serious counts calling for up to 20 years.
Upadhyaya set the next court date for Aug. 28, when a tentative trial date will be set, and directed Trump not to communicate directly about the facts of case with any individual known to be a witness.
Three police officers who defended the Capitol that day were also seen entering the courthouse. One of them, Aquilino Gonell, who retired from the Capitol Police after suffering injuries, took stock of the location’s symbolism, noting that it was “the same court in which hundreds of rioters have been sentenced. It’s the same court former President Trump is being arraigned in today for his alleged involvement before, during, and after the siege.”
Trump has said he is innocent. His legal team has characterized the latest case as an attack on his right to free speech and his right to challenge an election that he believed had been stolen.
He addressed the proceedings in a brief statement on a drizzly tarmac at Washington’s Reagan National Airport before he boarded his plane back to New Jersey.
“This is the persecution of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot,” he said. “So if you can’t beat ‘em, you persecute ‘em or you prosecute ’em. We can’t let this happen in America.”
