Politics

(Corrects name in paragraph 2 to Justin Pearson from Justin Nelson)

(Reuters) – Two Democratic lawmakers who were expelled from the Tennessee legislature earlier this year after angering the Republican majority with a protest against gun violence won a special election on Thursday to serve out the remainder of their terms.

Justin Pearson and Justin Jones both beat Republican challengers to reclaim their seats, the Associated Press reported.

Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives voted in April to expel the two lawmakers for breaking rules of decorum a by leading a protest inside the House chamber.

The expulsions drew nationwide attention to their protest, which came after a gunman killed three children and three adults in an attack at a school in Nashville, the state capital. A third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, joined the protest but narrowly escaped expulsion.

Within a few days, local officials in Pearson’s and Jones’ districts voted to return them to their seats under a provision in the state’s constitution that lets district-level officials fill legislative vacancies until a special election can be held.

Pearson, 28, represents a district in Memphis. Jones, 27, represents a district in Nashville. Both men won their primary elections in June with over 90% of the votes, and both are in districts that heavily favor the Democratic Party.

Pearson is running against Jeff Johnston, an independent, and Jones is running against Republican Laura Nelson.

Republicans who expelled the two men said their conduct disrupted the work of the House and that it was a severe breach of decorum rules.

Democrats, including U.S. President Joe Biden who hosted the two men and Johnson at the White House in April, said the expulsion was undemocratic and disempowered their constituents in Tennessee’s two largest cities.

(This Aug. 3 story has been corrected to say ‘Justin Pearson’ instead of ‘Justin Nelson’ in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Michael Perry)

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By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has proposed legislation to support establishment of national security councils in strategic Pacific island states that are home to key U.S. military installations and at risk of espionage and coercion by China.

The provisions are contained in the sweeping National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by the Senate last month but is still several steps from becoming law, and would allow for greater coordination between the U.S. security establishment and Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

The sparsely populated nations, whose territories cover vast areas of the Pacific, have relations with the United States governed by so-called Compacts of Free Association.

Under these, Washington retains responsibility for their defense and provides economic assistance while gaining exclusive access to strategic swathes of ocean.

The U.S. recently agreed renewed COFA deals with Micronesia and Palau and is still negotiating with the Marshall Islands at a time when China is making significant inroads into the Pacific, a region the U.S. has long considered its back yard.

Republican Senator Jodi Ernst, a co-sponsor of the proposed legislation, which is expanded on in a separate soon-to-be submitted ‘CONVENE Act’, highlighted the challenge posed by China, noting Beijing’s stepped up tieswith the Solomon Islands and incursions by Chinese vessels into Palau’s waters.

“Currently, there is limited coordination between the U.S. and the COFA nations to counter Chinese malign influence, curb Chinese purchases of land around U.S. installations on the islands, or prevent China’s infiltration and monitoring of U.S. activity throughout the island nations,” she said in a statement shared with Reuters.

“The strategic location of these islands is integral to our national security, but the lack of direct security channels between our nations creates risk,” she added.

The NDAA provision is co-sponsored by Democrats Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine and Chris Van Hollen.

An Ernst aide said Palau had already established a national security council and the other COFA states were actively considering doing so.

He noted that the U.S. has significant military installations on the islands, including high-powered radar on Palau and its main long-range missile testing site in the Marshall Islands.

The councils would comprise members of respective COFA states and make use of Pentagon-approved communications equipment to prevent Chinese espionage and allow sharing of intelligence, he said.

As well as countering Chinese espionage, the councils would enable better coordination in areas such as maritime security and in countering illegal fishing, he said.

“This bill does not mandate the COFA islands to anything, but what it does do is to say that if you do choose to build these councils … there’s going to U.S. support for such cooperation to include intelligence sharing and other types of cooperation,” the aide said.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -About half of Republicans would not vote for Donald Trump if he were convicted of a felony, a sign of the severe risks his legal problems pose for his 2024 U.S. presidential bid, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday.

The former president and current front-runner in the Republican nomination contest for the November 2024 presidential election, Trump pleaded not guilty in court on Thursday to federal charges he led a conspiracy to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

He has separately been charged in two other criminal cases: one in a New York state court which revolves around hush money payments to an adult film actress; and another in federal court where he is charged with retaining sensitive and classified national security documents after he left office in January 2021.

The two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll, which closed before Trump’s late-afternoon court appearance, asked respondents if they would vote for Trump for president next year if he were “convicted of a felony crime by a jury.” Among Republicans, 45% said they would not vote for him, more than the 35% who said they would. The rest said they didn’t know.

Asked if they would vote for Trump if he were “currently serving time in prison,” 52% of Republicans said they would not, compared to 28% who said they would.

Trump has proclaimed his innocence in all the cases against him and accuses prosecutors of conducting a “witch hunt” that aims to derail his campaign.

Two of the cases were brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, which ultimately answers to Trump’s nemesis, Democratic President Joe Biden, but which has taken steps to insulate investigations from political influence. The New York state case is led by a prosecutor who is an elected Democrat.

The new poll showed that Republicans broadly sympathize with Trump’s accusations of political persecution. Seventy-five percent of Republican respondents agreed with a statement that the charges against Trump were “politically motivated.” Twenty percent disagreed and the rest said they didn’t know.

About two-thirds of Republicans – 66% – described as “not believable” the accusation in Trump’s latest indictment that he solicited election fraud. Twenty-nine percent said it was believable and the rest were not sure.

Republican respondents also described themselves as more likely to withhold their votes on Election Day from an unnamed convicted felon than one named Donald Trump. When asked how a felony conviction would affect their voting in an abstract sense, 71% of Republicans said they would not vote for the convict, compared to 52% if it were Trump.

Trump has capitalized on his indictments since the first charges were filed in April, increasing his lead in the Republican nomination contest over his closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The new poll showed Trump’s dominance only growing in that contest, holding onto the 47% of Republican support he also had in a July poll, while DeSantis’ share slipped six percentage points to 13%.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted nationwide, gathering responses online from 1,005 U.S. adults. It had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about four percentage points.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool)

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By Andrew Goudsward, Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges he orchestrated a plot to try to overturn his 2020 election loss in what U.S. prosecutors call an unprecedented effort by the then-president to undermine the pillars of American democracy.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has overseen the federal investigation, looked on from the courtroom’s front row as Trump entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya.

“Not guilty,” Trump said, emphasizing the first word.

The arraignment, lasting about half an hour, took place in a Washington courthouse half a mile (1 km) from the U.S. Capitol, the building Trump’s supporters stormed on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to stop Congress from certifying his defeat.

It was the third time Trump has pleaded not guilty since April, with months of pretrial legal wrangling expected against the backdrop of the 2024 presidential campaign, in which Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination to take on Democratic President Joe Biden.

In a 45-page indictment on Tuesday, Smith accused Trump and his allies of promoting false claims the election was rigged, pressuring state and federal officials to alter the results and assembling fake slates of electors to try to wrest electoral votes from Biden.

Trump, 77, faces four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., to deprive citizens of their voting rights and to obstruct an official proceeding. The most serious charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

The next court date in the case will be Aug. 28 before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, though Upadhyaya said Trump would not be required to attend. Chutkan intends to set a trial date at that time, Upadhyaya said.

Trump’s lawyer, John Lauro, registered an early objection, arguing that the magnitude of the case and the amount of materials involved could require a lot of time.

Prosecutor Thomas Windom countered that the case should proceed as normal, including with a speedy trial.

Trump was released without travel restrictions. One of his conditions of release is that he not discuss the case with any witnesses unless accompanied by his lawyers.

Trump has portrayed the indictment, as well as the other criminal cases against him, as a “witch hunt” intended to derail his White House campaign.

‘SAD DAY FOR AMERICA’

“This is a very sad day for America,” Trump told reporters after the hearing before boarding his private plane to return to his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. “This is a persecution of a political opponent.”

Trump’s first of two impeachments, in 2019, was for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, his Democratic rival. Senate Republicans acquitted him of those charges.

Trump walked into the courtroom wearing a red tie and navy blue suit with an American flag lapel pin. About 10 Secret Service agents stood against the wall behind him.

He appeared to glance occasionally at Smith, who entered with his own security detail and the prosecutors assigned to the case.

When the court deputy read aloud the name of the case – “United States of America v. Donald J. Trump” – the former president shook his head in disapproval.

Trump previously pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he retained classified documents after leaving office and New York state charges that he falsified documents in connection with hush money payments to a porn star.

He may soon face more charges in Georgia, where a state prosecutor is investigating his attempts to overturn the election there. The Atlanta-area prosecutor, Fani Willis, has said she will file indictments by mid-August.

TRUMP STILL THE REPUBLICAN FRONT-RUNNERTrump’s legal woes have done little to damage his status as Republican front-runner. Forty-seven percent of Republican voters said they would support him in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll taken after Tuesday’s indictment, extending his lead over second-place Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 13%.

Three-quarters of Republicans said they agreed that the charges were “politically motivated,” showing that Trump’s claim that he is the victim of political persecution resonates with his base.

That said, the same poll found about half of Republicans said they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted of a felony, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, underscoring the potential risks his legal entanglements pose for his candidacy.

Most prominent Republicans, including several competing with Trump for the White House, have either defended him or offered muted criticism, instead accusing the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against a campaign foe.

Biden declined to comment on the arraignment.

Many of the allegations in Tuesday’s indictment had been well-documented in media reports and the investigation conducted by a U.S. House of Representatives select committee.

But the indictment featured some details that were not widely known, including several based on grand jury testimony and contemporaneous notes from former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also running for the Republican presidential nomination.

The indictment describes a phone call in which Pence told Trump there was no legal basis for the theory that Pence could block certification of the election.

“You’re too honest,” Trump responded, according to prosecutors.

Although Pence repeatedly told Trump he lacked the authority to reject electoral votes from certain states, Trump kept repeating the claim.

On Jan. 6, as he spoke to his supporters before they attacked the Capitol, Trump said: “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.” Some rioters at the Capitol later chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!”

Far from deterred by the violence, Trump and his associates kept calling Republican members of Congress hours after the riot had ended, still intent on blocking certification, the indictment said.

Pence was one of the few Republicans to criticize Trump on Tuesday, saying that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president.”

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch, Jacqueline Thomsen and Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen, Jason Lange, Tim Reid, John O’Connell, Jeff Mason and Patrick McFarland; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis and Howard Goller)

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(Reuters) – Two Democratic lawmakers who were expelled from the Tennessee legislature earlier this year after angering the Republican majority with a protest against gun violence won a special election on Thursday to serve out the remainder of their terms.

Justin Nelson and Justin Jones both beat Republican challengers to reclaim their seats, the Associated Press reported.

Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives voted in April to expel the two lawmakers for breaking rules of decorum a by leading a protest inside the House chamber.

The expulsions drew nationwide attention to their protest, which came after a gunman killed three children and three adults in an attack at a school in Nashville, the state capital. A third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, joined the protest but narrowly escaped expulsion.

Within a few days, local officials in Pearson’s and Jones’ districts voted to return them to their seats under a provision in the state’s constitution that lets district-level officials fill legislative vacancies until a special election can be held.

Pearson, 28, represents a district in Memphis. Jones, 27, represents a district in Nashville. Both men won their primary elections in June with over 90% of the votes, and both are in districts that heavily favor the Democratic Party.

Pearson is running against Jeff Johnston, an independent, and Jones is running against Republican Laura Nelson.

Republicans who expelled the two men said their conduct disrupted the work of the House and that it was a severe breach of decorum rules.

Democrats, including U.S. President Joe Biden who hosted the two men and Johnson at the White House in April, said the expulsion was undemocratic and disempowered their constituents in Tennessee’s two largest cities.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Michael Perry)

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(Reuters) – The two Democrat lawmakers who were expelled from the Tennessee legislature earlier this year after angering the Republican majority with a protest against gun violence are expected to win a special election on Thursday to serve out the remainder of their original terms.

Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives voted to expel Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, both young Black men, on April 6 as punishment for breaking rules of decorum a week earlier by leading a protest inside the House chamber.

The expulsions drew nationwide attention to their protest, which came after a shooter killed three children and three adults in an attack at a school in Nashville, the state capital. A third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, a white woman, joined the protest but narrowly escaped expulsion.

Within a few days, local officials in Pearson’s and Jones’ districts voted to return them to their seats under a provision in the state’s constitution that lets district-level officials fill legislative vacancies until a special election can be held.

Pearson, 28, represents a district in Memphis. Jones, 27, represents a district in Nashville. Both men won their primary elections in June with over 90% of the votes, and both are in districts that heavily favor the Democratic Party.

Pearson is running against Jeff Johnston, an independent, and Jones is running against Republican Laura Nelson.

Republicans who expelled the two men said their conduct disrupted the work of the House and that it was a severe breach of decorum rules.

Democrats, including U.S. President Joe Biden who hosted the two men and Johnson at the White House in April, said the expulsion was undemocratic and disempowered their constituents in Tennessee’s two largest cities.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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By Gram Slattery, Michael Martina and David Lawder

ROCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – At an economic policy speech on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis repeatedly blamed China for sapping the United States of its financial strength, mentioning the nation no less than 11 times in 20 minutes.

It was the latest sign that China has become a dominant issue in the Republican presidential primary race at a time when the Democratic Biden administration is trying to stabilize the intense rivalry between the world’s two biggest economies. China is mentioned daily at campaign stops, in digital ads and in policy speeches by the various Republican candidates.

America’s “authoritarian” foe, DeSantis said, is robbing industrial secrets and stealing U.S. manufacturing jobs. To solve the problem, he would revoke permanent normal trade relations with the East Asian superpower and limit certain types of exports.

Just minutes earlier, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has made confronting China a centerpiece of her campaign, had released a plan to confront the rival nation, which she called “the most dangerous threat America has faced since World War II.”

And in a Newsweek op-ed the same day, former president Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner by a large margin, accused the Justice Department of pursuing him because he was trying to “end the sellout of our country to Communist China.”

The line of attack being embraced by the Republican candidates is that China is not merely a national security threat, like Russia or Iran, but also a top economic threat, and that decoupling the U.S. economy from China is key to the nation’s economic health.

“They are buying up our farmland, spying on our kids and stealing our jobs,” Republican Senator Tim Scott, another presidential contender, said in an ad released in July.

China has been referenced as a foe in previous elections, most notably by Trump who once in office ramped up the pressure on Beijing, adopting confrontational rhetoric and a restrictive trade stance.

In this Republican primary race, the attacks are more frequent and the proposals bolder, political operatives say, thanks to an ongoing shift in U.S. public opinion.

“Be it TikTok, spy balloons, China is now a greater economic and military threat in the eyes of the American public than it ever had been before,” said Terry Sullivan, a political strategist who managed Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In addition to outdoing each other, the Republican candidates are trying to prove to the public they will be tougher than President Joe Biden, who has himself rolled out a series of new rules and orders aimed at limiting Chinese access to U.S. markets.

Some 50% of Americans identify China as the greatest threat to the United States, according to a Pew Research poll released in late July. Russia is the next greatest threat, according to 17% of respondents.

That is a major change since the last time Pew asked a similar question in 2019, when both countries were seen as similarly threatening.

POLICY PROPOSALS MEET REALITY

Among the China policies that is most embraced on the campaign trail is the idea of revoking permanent normal trade relations. That trade regime generally limits tariffs between the two nations. Haley, Trump and DeSantis have embraced the measure, while Scott has voted for such a move in Congress.

Trade analysts see the threat as serious.

But while some say it would be cataclysmic for trade relations and the U.S. economy, others wonder just how monumental it would be, given the complex web of sanctions and controls that have already been imposed by recent presidential administrations.

“In some ways, we’re already there, because China no longer benefits from most favored nation tariffs,” said Jamieson Greer, a trade lawyer with King and Spalding in Washington who served as chief of staff to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) under Trump.

One danger, said Wendy Cutler, a former high-ranking USTR official during multiple administrations, is that China would retaliate forcefully against such a move, slapping higher tariffs on U.S. farm goods and shutting U.S. companies out of its economy.

    “We could lose our third largest export market,” she warned.

While the Republicans candidates are unanimous in their belief that China must be confronted, they are split on whether the United States has the means to confront Russia at the same time.

DeSantis and Trump have said that continuing to support Ukraine in its bid to fend of Russia’s invasion diverts valuable resources that the United States needs to confront China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Among the institutions that have lobbied the DeSantis camp to take this position is the Heritage Foundation, the biggest conservative think tank in the country, according to a person with knowledge of DeSantis’ policy operation.

Haley and former vice president Mike Pence, another candidate, have reached a different conclusion. On the stump, they have said the United States must stand by Ukraine. If the United States does not confront Russia, they say, China will feel emboldened.

“Make no mistake, a win for Russia is a win for China,” Haley said at a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, in June.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery, David Lawder and Michael Martina; editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)

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By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Brewing battles over redistricting from New York to Utah may result in new congressional maps for at least half a dozen states before the 2024 election, with control of the closely divided U.S. House of Representatives in the balance.

The 2022 election – in which Republicans captured a slim 222-213 majority in the House – took place under maps based on the 2020 U.S. Census and intended to last a decade. But a series of legal challenges, including a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling, have cast many of those district lines into doubt.

In several states controlled by one party, both Republicans and Democrats may have a fresh opportunity to draw new districts and boost their chances of winning additional seats, a process known as gerrymandering. In other states, courts appear poised to force lawmakers to abandon gerrymandered plans in favor of fairer maps.

“With the House closely divided, these seats could make all the difference,” said Michael Li, a redistricting expert at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “It’s that simple.”

Here are some states that may see new maps ahead of the November 2024 election:

BLACK-MAJORITY DISTRICTS IN THE DEEP SOUTH

The U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld a lower court ruling that Alabama’s Republican-drawn 2022 map illegally denied Black voters an opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.

Black voters make up more than a quarter of the state’s population, but the map included a single majority-Black district out of seven – the only one currently held by a Democrat. The lower court ordered lawmakers to draw a second district with either a Black majority or “something quite close.”

Last month, Republicans passed a revised map that increased the number of Black voters in one district but fell well short of a majority.

Civil rights groups have asked the court to throw out the second map as well, and the court has scheduled an Aug. 14 hearing. If the court agrees with the plaintiffs, a new map would likely give Democrats a second House seat.

Legal experts said the ruling bolsters similar challenges in Georgia and Louisiana, where voting rights groups have argued that Republican-drawn maps marginalized Black voters. In Louisiana, where a judge has already indicated the map is illegal, a hearing is scheduled for October. The Georgia case heads to trial next month.

Those cases could yield another Black-majority district in each state, potentially giving Democrats two additional seats.

REPUBLICAN GAINS AT STATE SUPREME COURTS

Republicans won pivotal state Supreme Court elections last November in North Carolina and Ohio, ushering in new conservative majorities after more moderate courts ruled Republican-drawn maps were illegally drawn to hurt Democratic voters.

In North Carolina, that victory has already paid off; the court’s new right-wing majority in April reversed its prior decision, effectively giving the Republican-dominated legislature permission to implement a partisan map. The result is likely to be a gain of at least three Republican seats.

In Ohio, the state Supreme Court appears set to alter course after previously finding Republican maps violated the state constitution’s prohibition on gerrymandering. Anti-gerrymandering activists are already anticipating a reversal and have begun working on a new ballot initiative to strengthen the constitutional language in time for 2026.

Depending on how aggressively it acts, Ohio’s Republican-controlled redistricting commission could design a map this fall locking in 12 or even 13 Republican seats out of the state’s 15, up from the 10 held by Republicans now.

DEMOCRATIC GAINS AT STATE SUPREME COURTS

In New York, Democrats are eyeing another chance at redistricting after the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, threw out their 2022 map as illegally partisan. Since then, the court’s makeup has shifted left, after Governor Kathy Hochul appointed a liberal judge to replace a retiring moderate.

The court is currently weighing whether a new map should be used in 2024, as Democrats have argued. If the court agrees, a bipartisan commission would start the process. But under state law, the Democratic-dominated legislature has the final say.

Democrats could design a map that endangers as many as six Republican incumbents while still passing legal muster with a more amenable Court of Appeals, political analysts said.

In Wisconsin, the most expensive state Supreme Court election in U.S. history resulted in a new liberal majority. The winning candidate, Janet Protasiewicz, who was sworn in on Tuesday, called the current Republican-drawn maps “rigged” during the campaign, and Democrats have expressed interest in challenging them before the new court.

On Wednesday, a left-leaning legal group and other organizations filed a lawsuit targeting Wisconsin’s state legislative maps, but not the congressional map. At a press conference, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said the lawsuit was just a “first step” when asked about congressional districts.

A fairer congressional map would likely make two Republican-held seats more competitive, according to analysts. Republicans hold six of eight seats despite Wisconsin’s status as a swing state.

OTHER BATTLES

Last month, the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments over the state’s Republican-drawn congressional map, which carved Democratic Salt Lake County into four separate districts.

Voting rights groups argue the map is an illegal gerrymander under the state constitution.

Republicans, meanwhile, have filed a challenge in New Mexico, where a Democratic-drawn map helped the party sweep all three districts in 2022. The state’s top court has ordered a lower court to rule on the matter by October.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Grant McCool)

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(Corrects that Trump is in Bedminster, New Jersey, in paragraph 11)

By Sarah N. Lynch, Jacqueline Thomsen and Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump is due to appear in court on Thursday to face charges he led a wide-ranging conspiracy built on lies to overturn the 2020 presidential election, culminating in a violent attack on the seat of American democracy.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is scheduled to appear in a magistrate’s courtroom at 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) in Washington, D.C., half a mile from the U.S. Capitol, the building his supporters stormed on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to stop Congress from certifying his defeat.

In a 45-page indictment on Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith accused Trump and his allies of promoting false claims that the election was rigged, pressuring state and federal officials to alter the results and assembling fake slates of electors to try to wrest electoral votes from Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump faces four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., to deprive citizens of their right to have their votes counted and to obstruct an official proceeding. The most serious charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

In a series of posts on his social media site, Trump framed the indictment as an contrivance to derail his campaign, while his campaign issued a statement comparing the Biden administration to fascist regimes.

The indictment is the third in four months for Trump. He has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he retained classified documents after leaving office and New York state charges that he falsified documents in connection with hush money payments to a porn star.

Trump may soon face more charges in Georgia, where a state prosecutor is investigating his attempts to overturn the election there. The Atlanta-area prosecutor, Fani Willis, has said she will file indictments by mid-August.

Despite his legal entanglements, Trump leads a field of rivals seeking the 2024 Republican nomination. Polls show Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a distant second among Republican voters, many of whom have embraced Trump’s assertion that he is the victim of a Democratic witch hunt.

The vast majority of Republican leaders, including several competing with Trump for the White House, have either defended him or avoided direct criticism, instead accusing the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against a political foe.

Law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service and the D.C. police department, said extra security measures were in place ahead of Thursday’s court session. By late afternoon on Wednesday, reporters were already lining up to wait overnight for seats inside the courthouse.

A spokesperson said Trump would fly to Washington from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday and land around an hour before his scheduled court appearance.

‘YOU’RE TOO HONEST’

Many of the allegations in Tuesday’s indictment had been well documented in media reports and the investigation conducted by a U.S. House select committee.

But the indictment featured some details that were not widely known, including several based on grand jury testimony and contemporaneous notes from former Vice President Mike Pence, who is also running for the Republican presidential nomination.

In one section, the indictment describes a phone call in which Pence told Trump there was no legal basis for the theory that Pence could block certification of the election.

“You’re too honest,” Trump responded, according to prosecutors.

Although Pence repeatedly told Trump he lacked the authority to reject electoral votes from certain states, Trump kept repeating the claim.

On Jan. 6, as he spoke to his supporters before they attacked the Capitol, Trump said: “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.” Some rioters at the Capitol later chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!”

Far from deterred by the violence, Trump and an unnamed co-conspirator kept calling Republican members of Congress hours after the riot had ended, still intent on blocking certification, the indictment said.

“We need you, our Republican friends, to just try to slow it down,” the co-conspirator said in a voicemail to one U.S. senator, according to prosecutors. The indictment’s description of the co-conspirator makes clear it was Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney.

Pence was one of the few prominent Republicans to criticize Trump on Tuesday, saying that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president.”

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen; Additional reporting by Tim Reid; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Michael Perry)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is due in federal court Thursday to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, facing a judge near the U.S. Capitol building.

In what’s become a familiar but nonetheless stunning ritual, Trump is expected to be processed by law enforcement, formally taken into custody and enter a not guilty plea in front of a judge before being released, enabling him to rejoin the campaign trail as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.

An indictment Tuesday from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charges Trump with four felony counts. The charges could lead to a yearslong prison sentence in the event of a conviction.

Law enforcement officials ramped up security outside the courthouse, including by setting up barricades.

The Republican former president was the only person charged in the case, though prosecutors referenced six unnamed co-conspirators, mostly lawyers, they say he plotted with, including in a scheme to enlist fake electors in seven battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden to submit false certificates to the federal government.

This is the third criminal case brought against Trump in less than six months.

Trump’s lawyer John Lauro has asserted in television interviews that Trump’s actions were protected by the First Amendment right to free speech and that he relied on the advice of lawyers. Trump has claimed that Smith’s team is trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the early front-runner to claim the Republican nomination.

Smith said in a rare public statement this week that he was seeking a speedy trial, though Lauro has said he intends to slow the case down so that the defense team can conduct its own investigation.

The arraignment will be handled before U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadyaha, who joined the bench last year. But going forward, the case will be presided over by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama who has stood out as one of the toughest punishers of the Capitol rioters.

Chutkan has also ruled against Trump before, refusing in November 2021 to block the release of documents to the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 committee by asserting executive privilege.

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