A somber Trump pleads not guilty in election case as his lawyers try to slow-walk a trial

WASHINGTON — Seated between two attorneys, looking somber and occasionally clenching his hands on the table in front of him, former President Donald Trump listened as Judge Moxila Upadhyaya of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia arraigned him on four charges related to his alleged attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

Those allegations were detailed in an indictment announced earlier this week by Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. In a separate case, Smith has also indicted Trump on 40 counts related to his handling of classified documents after his presidential term concluded.

A fraught road back to the White House

A courtroom sketch in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday shows former President Donald Trump flanked by his attorneys Todd Blanche, left, and John Lauro, as he faces charges that he orchestrated a plot to try to overturn his 2020 election loss. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

The hearing had political as well as legal ramifications. Trump is in the midst of consolidating his front-runner status in the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential nomination.

For a short spell on Thursday, however, he was not a presidential candidate but a defendant in a criminal case. He sat between two of his attorneys, John Lauro and Todd Blanche. Trump rose to be sworn in, then listened as Upadhyaya read the charges against him.

Trump entered a plea of not guilty.

Throughout the 27-minute hearing, Trump seemed to listen intently, at times leaning in the judge’s direction. There was little evidence of the animated performer who could captivate crowds of thousands of supporters.

The hearing took place at the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse, a short walk from where pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan 6., 2021, in an attempt to keep Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race from being certified by Congress.

Smith’s indictment charges that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 election, but nevertheless spread the lie that victory had been “stolen” from him. The president’s supporters have countered that he was merely exercising his First Amendment rights by voicing his opinion on the outcome of the election.