Security is tight as the former president makes his way to Washington DC to face four felony charges.
Former President Donald Trump made his way to Washington D.C. Thursday to face four felony charges for attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. It is being called one of the most important criminal cases in U.S. history.
Trump met with his advisors about the 2024 campaign before he left his New Jersey country club Thursday in a five-car motorcade to head to Newark Airport. From there he departed for the nation's capital.
Security preparations began in the U.S. Federal Courthouse overnight ahead of the former president’s arrival. Metal barricades have been set up along sidewalks, snowplows stationed to stop vehicles from getting through, as well as deployment of extra security personnel.
A small group of Trump loyalists gathered near the federal courthouse, along with people who arrived to heckle him.
Trump’s defense attorney is under fire as the former president is expected to claim he truly believed, and continues to believe, he won the 2020 presidential election.
Experts are calling it the "delusion defense." Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, says Trump knew the truth.
“At first I wasn’t sure,” Barr says when asked if he thought Trump knew he lost the election. “But I have come to believe that he knew well that he had lost the election.”
Trump’s attorneys say they will also argue he was exercising his right to free speech when he schemed to overturn the election.
The judge assigned to Trump’s case is Tanya Chutkan. Chutkan has presided over the trials of numerous Jan. 6 rioters.
