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Before departing from Washington DC after being arraigned on four federal charges, former president Donald Trump gave quick remarks in which he claimed the capitol had “filth”, “decay” and “broken buildings”. Mr Trump made a quick appearance at the nation’s capital on Thursday so he could appear in federal court to be formally charged with four counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and subsequent January 6 attack on the Capitol. “This is a very sad day for America,” Mr Trump told reporters before departing on his private plane to New Jersey. The ex-president has continuously claimed he is innocent and that the indictment, brought forth by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, is a politically-motivated action. But unlike his previous post-arraignment speeches, Mr Trump chose to direct most of his statement toward Washington DC’s environment. “It was also very sad driving through Washington DC and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti,” Mr Trump said. “This is not the place that I left. It’s a very sad thing to see it.” Mr Trump spent approximately two hours in Washington DC, most of which was spent inside the E Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse. The ex-president pleaded not guilty to the four counts he was indicted on; conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights and obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding. The charges stem from Mr Smith’s probe into Mr Trump’s rhetoric in the days leading up to the January 6th attack on the Capitol, including Mr Trump’s false claims of election fraud. The most recent indictment alleges that Mr Trump knowingly spread lies that there was election fraud in 2020 and he actually won. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear more legitimate, crate an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election,” the indictment reads. Despite the serious allegations, Mr Trump’s post-arraignment speech made little mention of the implications he is facing. “When you look at what’s happening this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America. 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 so if you can’t beat them you persecute them or prosecute ‘em,” Mr Trump said before departing on his plane. Read More Live updates: Trump pleads not guilty at arraignment in 2020 election case What is an arraignment? Here’s what to expect following Trump’s indictment Trump pleads not guilty to federal conspiracy charges in plot to overturn 2020 election Trump rails against ‘filth’ in DC after arraignment on election conspiracy charges Trump ‘irked’ that arraignment judge didn’t call him ‘Mr President’ Former Trump spokesperson sheds light on Melania’s absence from his arraignment

The latest case of United States of America v Donald J Trump strikes at the heart of a question that has clouded the former president’s time in and out of office: Can he unequivocally lie and use that deceit to influence the outcome of a democratic election, against the will of millions of Americans? An indictment against the former president for his very public plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election is remarkable in that it is not only his third criminal indictment within four months, a historic precedent for this or any former or current president in US history. It also chronicles the alleged actions of a sitting president on his way out to bring American democracy down with him. Mr Trump already is criminally charged in New York City in a case connected to hush money payments to silence stories of his alleged affairs in the lead up to his 2016 election. The US Department of Justice also has charged him with his alleged retention of classified documents after leaving the White House. But the indictment unsealed on 1 August outlines a graver threat. Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, said the charges “matter beyond the fact that a former president is accused”. “Donald Trump and his co-conspirators tried to overthrow American democracy. They wanted to negate the votes of millions of Americans. They did this using phony claims of voter fraud and rigged elections. These conspiracy theories are still being used to justify changes to voting and election law all over the country. Donald Trump will stand trial,” he said in a statement to The Independent. “The Big Lie will be on trial too.” The indictment outlines the familiar contours of a conspiracy-driven scheme and the violence that followed it, a narrative that members of Congress investigated for more than a year before publishing an 845-page report detailing Mr Trump’s refusal to cede power, regardless of the outcome. That report and countless investigations into the events surrounding January 6 have painted the attack on the Capitol as part of a much-larger effort to preserve a fragile American democracy. Unlike the other indictments against him, the latest charges amount to accusations of crimes committed by a man who president when he allegedly committed them. For months leading up to the 2020 presidential election, then-President Trump routinely and publicly undermined the legitimacy of an election that hadn’t even happened yet, sowing doubt about whether Americans’ votes would be counted at all. But as the indictment alleges in a detailed, chronological accounting of the scheme, the former president was routinely made aware that his statements were false – by two attorneys general, Justice Department officials, an election security chief, his vice president, his campaign, and Republican governors and election officials who voted for and endorsed him. According to the indictment, one senior adviser said the campaign’s legal team “can’t back any” of the former president’s claims. “I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy s*** beamed down from the mothership,” the adviser wrote, according to prosecutors. Federal prosecutors outlined what, allegedly, happened next, when it became clear Mr Trump was losing: Then-President Trump and his allies conspired with officials in states that he lost to invalidate ballots and use fraudulent electors to cast their electoral college votes on his behalf, relied on the Justice Department to force the plan through, and pressured his vice president to go along with it, before exploiting the violent disruption in the halls of Congress to make another last-ditch attempt to reject the outcome. “It was an attempt to usurp from the people our right to choose our own leaders, our own president, through the electoral college system,” according to Democratic US Rep Jamie Raskin, who served as the lead impeachment manager for Mr Trump’s second impeachment for the events surrounding January 6. “They’re very grave and serious charges, of course, but extremely well anchored in the facts,” he told MSNBC. The resulting four-count indictment accuses the former president of committing three criminal conspiracies while he was still in office. Mr Trump is accused of a conspiracy of “dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” to “impair, obstruct, and defeat” the process of collecting and certifying votes in the states, a conspiracy to obstruct the certification of those votes in Congress, and a conspiracy to deprive the right to vote and have one’s vote counted, a violation of long-standing civil rights law first enacted in the violent aftermath of the Civil War. The indictment also lists six unnamed co-conspirators who are likely to include Trump-connected attorneys and government officials. Mr Trump relied on his “prolific” lies to help organize fake electors in several states to submit false vote certificates to Congress, positioning Mike Pence to oversee a fraudulent certification of those bogus slates of electors on 6 January, 2021, the indictment alleges. The former president also allegedly leveraged the Justice Department to advance the scheme; at one point in the indictment, prosecutors suggest that the Trump administration was willing to deploy the military to crush opposition to his election, if he were to successfully overturn Mr Biden’svictory. Three days before January 6, a co-conspirator believed to be Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark spoke with a deputy White House counsel who had previously warned Mr Trump that “there is no world, there is no option, in which you do not leave the White House”. “Well,” Mr Clark allegedly replied, “that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.” Following the hours-long siege at the Capitol on January 6, a violent show of force fuelled by Mr Trump’s baseless narrative, his aides and co-conspirators exploited that chaotic delay to pressure Congress to refuse the results for a final time. “We are talking about democracy on the brink, as you read through this indictment,” Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House communications director under then-President Trump, told CNN. “It shows how close we got.” The charges are unprecedented in their scope, but the tools to prosecute election interference and voter fraud conspiracies that have deprived Americans’ rights have been in place for more than a century. “Our democracy and our legal system are actually prepared to deal with these kinds of unprecedented situations,” Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center’s voting rights and elections programme, told The Independent. “I think the history is important, because we’re also not at the end of history here.” While he ultimately failed in his efforts, Mr Trump’s narrative of victimisation and “stolen” elections has infected a wide swath of the American public, particularly Republican officials and their supporters. Mr Trump’s rhetoric has persuaded roughly three in 10 Americans to believe the lie that the election was stolen from him. His false and inflated claims, spanning more than a decade, have sowed enough doubt among his supporters to construct the lie of “stolen” and “rigged” elections, animating Republican attempts to challenge results and craft dozens of pieces of legislation to do what Mr Trump failed to do in court and while in office. Since leaving office, the former president has continued a narrative of political persecution as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination for president, with a reliable mention of “stolen” or “rigged” election in his fundraising messages, on his Truth Social, and on the stages of political conferences and campaign rallies. Mr Trump, who has frequently used projection to accuse his rivals of doing the very things of which he has been accused, now refers to the multiple investigations and indictments against him as politically motivated “election interference” – a charge at the center of his latest indictment. He accuses his rival of “weaponising” the federal government against him – once again, what prosecutors have alleged Mr Trump did to stop Mr Biden from winning the 2020 election. Mr Trump and his defenders argue that the real crime is the unrelated case involving Hunter Biden, and what they allege is a Justice Department coverup to protect him, while they ignore the Trump family history of alleged fraud, self-dealing and enrichment at the public’s expense. Fox News has spent considerable airtime suggesting that the indictments are timed to distract from spurious Republican-led investigations into the president’s son, casting Mr Trump as a victim of his politically motivated rival. The network – less than four months after its historic $787m settlement to avert a potentially devastating defamation trial involving many of the same lies at the center of Mr Trump’s push to overturn election results – immediately got to work to defend the former president as news of the indictment broke. Jesse Watters, who inherited Tucker Carlson’s prime-time slot after he was fired from the network, called the indictment “political war crimes”. Right-wing media pundits claim he was merely acting within his authority to challenge the outcome of the results, or simply using his First Amendment protected rights to reject them, or that he truly believed, despite overwhelming evidence, that the election was stolen from him. “I would like them to try to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Donald Trump believed that these allegations were false,” lead Trump lawyer John Lauro said on Fox News the night of his indictment. The indictment makes clear that Mr Trump has the right – “like every American” – to say whatever he wants about the election, even to falsely claim that he won. But what he cannot do, prosecutors argue, is weaponize those lies in a conspiracy to overturn the results. “They’re not attacking his First Amendment right,” former US Attorney General Bill Barr told CNN. “He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech, and all fraud involves speech. So, free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.” With each indictment, the former president has fanned the flames of outrage and suggested that the US faces World War III and imminent violence without his leadership. With news of criminal charges in New York City in March, he demanded widespread protests and called America a “dying” and “third world” country where “leftist thugs” are “killing and burning with no retribution”. “There’s no other way to say it: our nation is teetering on the brink of tyranny,” a campaign fundraising message announced after news of his latest federal charges. On his Truth Social, he compared the current administration to “Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes”. Mr Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential race, and by all measures it appears he would not do anything different should he return to the White House. His 2024 campaign agenda builds from his dark vision of American “carnage” from his first moments as president and the four chaotic years that followed. In recent months, he has demanded the executions of drug offenders and human traffickers, considered the “termination” of the US Constitution, pledged national restrictions on abortions and gender-affirming care for trans people, and promised political vengeance and “retribution” for his supporters, offering himself up as a martyr for a movement he inspired. “I’m being indicted for you,” he tells them. Federal prosecutors have already charged more than 1,000 people in connection with the attack on the Capitol on 6 January, 2021. Donald Trump is now one of them. “January 6 and the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, together with the first criminal trials of an American president, will now become singularly infamous events in American history,” conservative former federal judge J Michael Luttig said. “These events will forever scar and stain the United States. And they will forever scar and stain the United States in the eyes of the world.” Read More Trump indictment – live: Trump posts ominous video as court arraignment nears for 2020 election charges Eight key revelations from Trump’s January 6 indictment Trump’s election fraud claims were always bogus. Will his history of lies finally catch up to him? Why Trump is charged under a civil rights law used to prosecute KKK terror Trump supporters see latest indictment as proof of a conspiracy to take him down Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Who is Jack Smith? The special prosecutor who just indicted Trump again

When Donald Trump pleaded not guilty after being arrested and arraigned on Thursday for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election, among those present in the courthouse was Aquilino Gonell. A US Capitol police officer, Mr Gonell resigned in December last year as he sought to continue recovering both “physically and mentally” from the trauma of the Jan 6 insurrection that occurred in 2021. “Our Democracy is worth fighting for,” the retired officer injured in the Capitol riot wrote on X (formerly Twitter) soon after the proceeding. “Not prosecuting is far riskier than having no consequences for the alleged power grab attempts. Justice and the rule of law must win for our democracy to survive,” he said of the former president who was indicted Monday on four charges as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the alleged conspiracy surrounding the events from 6 Jan Capitol riot. Describing the incident, he wrote, “[As] Capitol Police sergeant, I found myself defending everything I sacrificed, and our very own democracy when it was threatened by an all out assault by a mob.” “As an American, the events on January 6 were shocking,” he said. “I was attacked by more than 50 people (one way or another) that I know of. I have given testimony to the congressional committee, investigators, prosecutors and the court.” He had earlier last year, while providing testimony before Congress, compared the experience of being at the Capitol on that day to his experience in Iraq with the US Army. “On January 6, for the first time, I was more afraid working at the Capitol than during my entire Army deployment to Iraq,” he had said in prepared remarks. “In Iraq, we expected armed violence, because we were in a war zone. But nothing in my experience in the Army, or as a law enforcement officer, prepared me for what we confronted on Jan 6.” He told legislators how he was punched, pushed, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants and “blinded with eye-damaging lasers” – injuries that required multiple surgeries and a six-month medical leave. In a poetic twist of fate, Mr Trump’s latest arraignment brought him to the exact same courthouse where hundreds of people have been tried, convicted and sentenced to terms in prison as long as 18 years for charges in connection with the Jan 6 insurrection. Mr Trump, the man Liz Cheney once credited with having “assembled” and “summoned” members of the mob, is now the latest defendant among them. Mr Gonell was present in court along with two other police officers – Daniel Hodges and Harry Dunn – who defended the Capitol that day. They watched the former president’s arraignment from inside the court. Taking stock of the location’s symbolism where Mr Trump was produced, Mr Gonell said: “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.” Read More Live updates: Trump pleads not guilty at arraignment in 2020 election case Trump pleaded not guilty. The stakes couldn’t be higher Trump was told not to talk to witnesses in 2020 election conspiracy case. That could be a challenge. Trump appears to stumble over his name and age at arraignment Watch view of the Capitol on day Donald Trump scheduled to be arraigned Trump supporters falsely claim former president faces death penalty

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Iraqi Christians have struggled since the Nineveh plains, their historic homeland of rolling hills dotted with wheat and barley fields, were wrested back from Islamic State extremists six years ago. Although the threat from IS has receded, some towns are still mostly rubble. There are few inhabited homes or basic services, including water. Many Christians have given up and left for Europe, Australia or the United States. Others are trying to follow. Now the shrinking religious minority that was also violently targeted by al-Qaida before the rise of IS has been rocked by yet another crisis in the form of a political showdown between two influential Christian figures — a Vatican-appointed cardinal and a militia leader, with land and influence at the core of the drama. The dispute adds to the woes of Iraqi Christians, who have often felt sidelined in the political order. A 2021 visit by Pope Francis provided a glimmer of hope that quickly faded. Meanwhile, the Christian population has plummeted. The number of Christians in Iraq today is estimated at 150,000, compared to 1.5 million in 2003. Iraq’s total population is more than 40 million. The political tension rose last month when Cardinal Louis Sako withdrew from his headquarters in Baghdad to northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region after Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoked a decree recognizing his position as patriarch of the Chaldeans, Iraq’s largest Christian denomination and one of the Catholic Church’s eastern rites. Sako said he will not return to Baghdad until his recognition is reinstated. His departure added to the feeling of helplessness among many Christians. “Of course, this affects us psychologically,” said Sura Salem, a Christian social activist in Baghdad. “You feel like a family without a father.” Christians staged a small protest in Baghdad over Sako’s departure, but Salem said “listening to the voice of the Christians is the last concern” of Iraqi leaders. Sako blames a campaign against him by Rayan al-Kildani, a fellow Chaldean Christian who formed a militia called the Babylon Brigades that fought against IS and still patrols much of the Nineveh plains. The group is affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of primarily Shiite, Iran-backed militias. Its associated political party, the Babylon Movement, won four of five Christian-designated seats in Iraq’s 2021 parliamentary elections. Sako believes al-Kildani is angling to take over Christian endowments and properties. Al-Kildani has made similar allegations about Sako. “I have stood up to this militia and others who wanted to take over what rightfully belongs to the Christians,” Sako told The Associated Press, days after arriving in Irbil to a warm welcome from Kurdish officials. “Of course, no one defends Christians other than the church.” In Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood, al-Kildani was busy building political alliances. On a recent afternoon, several couches in the palatial lobby of his party headquarters were occupied by well-dressed women wearing hijabs, beneath a painting of the Last Supper and a portrait of al-Kildani. One by one, the women entered the inner office, each one emerging with a gift bag. One of the visitors explained that they were political candidates interested in running on al-Kildani’s list in Mosul in December’s provincial elections. After the visitors departed, a smiling and courtly al-Kildani made his entrance. He insisted that he had no role in the withdrawal of the patriarch's decree and dismissed allegations that he was seeking to seize church lands. “I am the son of this church, and it is my duty to respect it, but it is unfortunate when a clergyman accuses someone without proof,” he said. Al-Kildani has accused Sako of selling off church properties, allegations the patriarch denies, and he has filed a lawsuit against Sako alleging slander. But al-Kildani said he is ready to meet with Sako to reconcile. Sako rejected the suggestion. Al-Kildani ”has a militia, and his loyalty is not to the church,” the patriarch said. “He is not a respectable person." The Iraqi president has downplayed his revocation of Sako's recognition as bureaucratic housekeeping, claiming it did not diminish the patriarch’s legal or religious status. The Vatican has remained largely silent. Its embassy in Baghdad said in a statement that the Iraqi Constitution guarantees that the heads of churches can administer church properties. A senior Vatican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to the media, said the decree was unnecessary given the constitutional guarantees. He said the Holy See did not want to get involved in the dispute but had invited Sako to tamp down tensions with the Iraqi authorities for the sake of Iraqi Christians. The United States sided with Sako. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last month that the U.S. is concerned that Sako’s position "is under attack” by a militia leader who in 2019 was slapped with U.S. sanctions for his alleged involvement in human rights abuses, including cutting off a captive’s ear. Al-Kildani denied the allegations and accused the international community of being ungrateful after his group’s role in the fight against IS. He accused the Kurdish Democratic Party — the ruling party in the Kurdish region and a rival of the Iraqi president's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party — and the United States of engineering Sako’s withdrawal from Baghdad for political reasons. For some Christians, the drama is overshadowed by more pressing problems. As Baghdad resident Anan al-Dawi left a sparsely attended Mass on Sunday, her main concern was a recent power outage in the scorching summer heat. She struck a diplomatic tone regarding the feud between Sako and al-Kildani. Although physically absent, she said, Sako “lives in all of our hearts.” As for al-Kildani's group, she said: “I serve the country in my way. You serve it in yours, and they are also serving their country." Back in the Nineveh plains, in the town of Batnaya, patrolled by members of Kildani's militia, Lawrence Sabah owns a small factory where he makes mop handles out of wood imported from Russia. Sabah did not share his opinion on Sako or al-Kildani, but he had other complaints. “There are no services, even the water sometimes doesn’t come, and 70 or 80 percent of the houses were destroyed,” he said. He is hoping to join his parents and siblings, who have resettled in California. Some 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the north, in Kurdish-controlled territory, Raad Ekram owns an electrical supply store in the sparsely populated town of Telskof. When his family was displaced from the village to the city of Dohuk, Ekram believes he got short shrift from both the Iraqi government and the church. “We never saw the patriarch,” he said. “Of course, I don’t accept what happened to him ... and I don’t accept for him to be harmed.” But the patriarch "didn’t do everything he should have done for us.” He is encouraging his children to seek their fortunes abroad. “There’s nothing left in Iraq," he said, "especially for the Christians.” ___ Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. 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Donald Trump appeared to stumble over his words when he was asked to state his full name and age at his arraignment on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Mr Trump arrived at the E Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington DC on Thursday where he pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts of an alleged election hoax conspiracy that led to the January 6 riots at the US Capitol. Mr Trump, dressed in his trademark navy blue suit and red tie, entered the courtroom at 3.51pm accompanied by John Lauro, a veteran Washington-based criminal defence attorney, and Todd Blanche, the New York-based lawyer who is leading his defence in the other criminal cases against him. He was made to wait about 25 minutes before the magistrate judge entered the room at 4.15pm, and appeared nervous and fidgety. After attorneys for the government and defence introduced themselves, Mr Trump stood to take his oath from a courtroom deputy. US Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya then asked the former president to state his full name. “Donald J Trump — John — Donald John Trump,” Mr Trump replied hesitantly. He was then asked for his date of birth, and tripped over his words again. At first, he said “seven seven,” before correcting himself and saying “77”. After explaining his rights to remain silent and to legal representation, and reminding him of the lengthy prison sentence he faces if convicted, Judge Upadhyaya asked Mr Trump if he understood. He replied in the affirmative. Mr Lauro then entered a plea of not guilty on all counts on his behalf. Prosecutors did not seek to detain Mr Trump, and set a date of 28 August for a first hearing before Judge Tanya Chutkan. Mr Trump is not required to attend. In comments to reporters afterwards, Mr Trump described it as a “very sad day” before claiming Washington DC had deteriorated in the two and a half years since he left office. “This was never supposed to happen in America.... if you can’t beat ‘em, you persecute them,” he said. As his motorcade returned to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, it was met with a chorus of insults from a small group of protesters. “F** you, terrorist,” one man yelled, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Andrew Restuccia. Earlier this week, Mr Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding in relation to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The indictment also described six unnamed co-conspirators, who have been identified from details contained in the document as New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Mr Trump lawyer John Eastman, “Kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell, former top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and attorney Kenneth Chesebro. Mr Trump has claimed in a series of unhinged posts to Truth Social that President Biden and the US Department of Justice had “weaponised” the federal government against him. Read More Live: Trump pleads not guilty at arraignment after arrest Trump pleads not guilty to federal conspiracy charges in plot to overturn 2020 election Who is Jack Smith? The special prosecutor who just indicted Trump again

A Florida man who recently dropped all legal appeals was executed Thursday for the 1988 murder of a woman who was sexually assaulted, killed with a hammer, and then set on fire in her own bed. James Phillip Barnes, 61, was pronounced dead at 6.13pm following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke. Lying on a gurney, Barnes appeared to already have his eyes shut when the curtain was opened for witnesses. He didn't respond when prison officials asked if he had a final statement, and he remained motionless except for breathing for about 10 minutes until that stopped. A doctor then pronounced him dead. The 61-year-old inmate was sentenced to death for the murder of nurse Patricia “Patsy” Miller. It was the fifth execution in Florida this year. One of the victim's siblings, Andrew Miller, witnessed the execution and said he came to remember his sister. “I did not come here to watch someone die. I came here to honor our sister, Patricia Miller,” he told reporters afterward. “No one should live in fear within the safety of their own home. No woman, no child, no animal should have that fear. We did.” Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to a state prosecutor claiming responsibility for killing Miller years earlier at her condominium in Melbourne on Florida’s east coast. Barnes represented himself in court hearings where he offered no defense, pleaded guilty to killing Miller and did not attempt to seek a life sentence rather than the death penalty. Miller, who was 41 when Barnes killed her on April 20, 1988, had some previous unspecified negative interactions with him, according to a jailhouse interview he gave German film director Werner Herzog. “There were several events that happened (with Miller). I felt terribly humiliated, that’s all I can say,” Barnes said in the interview. When he pleaded guilty, Barnes told the judge that after breaking into Miller’s unit, “I raped her twice. I tried to strangle her to death. I hit her head with a hammer and killed her and I set her bed on fire,” according to court records. There was also DNA evidence linking Barnes to Miller’s killing. After pleading guilty, Barnes was sentenced to death on 13 December 2007. He also pleaded guilty to sexual battery, arson, and burglary with an assault and battery. Barnes killed his wife in 1997 after she discovered that he was dealing drugs. Her body was found stuffed in a closet after she was strangled, court records show. Barnes has claimed to have killed at least two other people but has never been charged in those cases. Barnes had been in and out of prison since his teenage years, including time served for convictions for grand theft, forgery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property. In the Miller case, state lawyers appointed to represent Barnes filed initial appeals, including one that led to mental competency evaluations. Two doctors found that Barnes had symptoms of personality disorder with “borderline antisocial and sociopathic features.” However, they pronounced him competent to understand his legal situation and plead guilty, and his convictions and death sentence were upheld. After DeSantis signed the inmate’s death warrant in June, a Brevard County judge granted Barnes’ motion to drop all appeals involving mitigating evidence such as his mental condition and said “that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions and to proceed to execution (his death) without any delay,” court records show. Though unusual, condemned inmates sometimes don’t pursue every legal avenue to avoid execution. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that about 150 such inmates have been put to death since the US Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty as constitutional in 1976. The Florida Supreme Court accepted the Brevard County ruling, noting that no other motion seeking a stay of execution for Barnes had been filed in state or federal court. In the Herzog interview, Barnes said he had converted to Islam in prison and wanted to clear his conscience about the Miller case during the holy month of Ramadan. “They say I’m remorseless. I’m not. There are no more questions on this case. And I’m going to be executed,” Barnes said. Read More Grieving families confront Pittsburgh synagogue shooter at death penalty sentencing Singapore executes third prisoner in just 8 days. What explains this fresh wave of death sentences? Robert Bowers killed 11 in a Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. A jury ruled that he deserves death

The son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro acknowledged Thursday that his father’s 2022 election campaign received money of dubious origin, according prosecutors investigating the son for alleged illicit enrichment and money laundering. Nicolás Petro, who was a legislator representing a northern coastal region, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the probe after being charged Tuesday. Prosecutor Mario Andrés Burgos, who heads the investigation, said the younger Petro has revealed that unjustified increases detected in his assets came from two individuals being questioned by Colombian authorities. The money went partly into his own accounts and partly into the campaign that made his father Colombia's first elected leftist president, the prosecutor said. On Tuesday, when he was charged, prosecutors said the younger Petro took thousands of dollars from drug traffickers and used it to buy luxurious homes and expensive cars. Nicolás Petro, 36, pleaded innocent to the charges, but agreed to cooperate with authorities. The case has come at a time when Colombia’s president is losing popularity and has been exposed to attacks by opposition parties, which have become increasingly reluctant to cooperate with his legislative agenda. The investigation stems from a shocking declaration made by the son's former wife, Daysuris Vásquez, to local news magazine Semana in March. Vasquez said she was present at meetings where Nicolás Petro arranged a 600 million peso ($150,000) donation from a politician who was once convicted in Washington of drug trafficking and who wanted to contribute to Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign. She accused her ex-husband of pocketing the money and said that the father’s presidential campaign had no knowledge of the donation. On Thursday, prosecutors said the “resources” in the case were around $270,000 that was delivered by Samuel Santander Lopesierra and Gabriel Hilsaca to Nicolás Petro. Lopesierra was convicted and extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced for drug trafficking. Hilsaca is the son of Alfonso Hilsaca, who is currently being prosecuted on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy in Colombia. Burgos said the president’s son has promised to deliver audio recordings and documentary evidence that would corroborate that part of the money he received was used to finance his father’s electoral campaign without being duly reported to authorities.. Prosecutors also accused Vásquez of co-operating in the money laundering scheme and said she helped her husband hide thousands of dollars in cash in suitcases that the couple kept at their home. The couple, who no longer live together, were arrested Saturday and have been held at the headquarters of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Bogota. Thursday’s hearing was held to hear arguments on whether Nicolás Petro’s detention should be switched to house arrest. The president has said he would not interfere with the investigation, and wrote a message on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in which he said he hoped his son would “reflect on his mistakes.” Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Panama Canal foresees its income falling after shipping limited due to a drought Appeals court allows Biden asylum restrictions to temporarily stay in place as case plays out New Zealand to boost its defense capabilities as it faces increasing tensions in the Pacific

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges stemming from his attempt to overturn the election he lost to Joe Biden less than three years ago. Mr Trump entered his plea on the second-floor courtroom at the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington DC on 3 August, just a short walk from where a mob of his supporters began assaulting police officers at the start of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. The twice-impeached, now-thrice-indicted ex-president’s appearance in criminal court – his third since April – comes just two days after a Washington DC grand jury charged him with three criminal conspiracies and obstruction in connection with his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In a poetic twist of fate, Mr Trump’s latest arraignment brought him to the exact same courthouse where hundreds of people have been tried, convicted and sentenced to terms in prison as long as 18 years for charges in connection with January 6. Mr Trump, the man Liz Cheney once credited with having “assembled” and “summoned” members of the mob, is now the latest defendant among them. Three police officers who defended the Capitol that day – Daniel Hodges, Aquilino Gonnell and Harry Dunn – watched the former president’s arraignment from inside the court. “All I have wanted from day one is accountability,” Mr Dunn said in a statement through his attorney. Mr Trump was accompanied by John Lauro, a veteran Washington-based criminal defence attorney, and Todd Blanche, the New York-based lawyer who is leading his defence in the other criminal cases against him. The former president – wearing his customary red tie, white shirt and dark blue suit – sat impassively between his attorneys, while US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith was seen glancing at the defendant and counsel as the courtroom waited for the arrival of US Magistrate Judge Moxila A Upadhyaya. The court proceedings began at 4.15 pm, with the courtroom standing for the magistrate judge’s entrance. After attorneys for the government and defence introduced themselves, Mr Trump was asked to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and the judge reminded participants and media of court rules against recording. Mr Trump was then asked to state his full name: “Donald J Trump – John – Donald John Trump.” Asked for his age, he at first said “seven seven,” then corrected himself and said “77”. After Judge Upadhyaya read the charges and explained the penalties Mr Trump could face if convicted, she advised the ex-president – who she addressed as “Mr Trump” – of his right to remain silent, and his right to an attorney. After explaining each right, she asked if he understood. Each time, he replied: “Yes” or “yes, I do”. Mr Lauro, the attorney for the ex-president, entered a plea of not guilty on all counts on his behalf. Judge Upadhyaya warned Mr Trump that the “most important” condition of his release is that he not commit any crimes while awaiting trial, and said he could face pretrial detention or harsher sentences if he violates that condition. She also warned him of the consequences of failing to appear for future court dates, and specifically cautioned Mr Trump against intimidating, retaliating, or trying to influence any witness in the case against him. Asked if he would comply, the ex-president appeared to answer in the affirmative, at which point the judge ordered a pretrial services officer to swear him to abide by the conditions, which he then signed in the magistrate judge’s presence. Judge Upadhyaya then offered both sides several potential dates for the next hearing in the case, which she said she had come up with after consulting with Judge Tanya Chutkan, the district judge overseeing the case. While the magistrate judge set the next hearing for 28 August, she said Mr Trump is not required to appear, and ordered the government to file a proposed schedule and state how many days it expects to need for trial within seven days. She also ordered the defence to file a response seven days after that. Mr Lauro said the defence would need “an understanding of the magnitude of discovery,” including possible “exculpatory information” before being able to state when Mr Trump would be ready for trial. “There’s no question in my mind that Mr Trump is entitled to a fair and just trial,” he said, adding that he would like information on the “scope and extent” of evidence within two or three days. Mr Windom said in response that the government would “endeavour” to get the materials to defence “very, very quickly” after an appropriate protective order is entered. He added that the case would benefit from “normal order” and “a speedy trial,” after which Judge Upadhyaya said there would be a fair process for both sides. The magistrate judge added that Judge Chutkan intends to set a trial date at the 28 August hearing. Mr Lauro then rose again to suggest that he and his co-counsel could not say when they’d want a trial until after the discovery is turned over, but Judge Upadhyaya said her order for a response from the defence seven days after the government’s proposal would stand. In response, Mr Lauro then told the magistrate judge that it was “somewhat absurd” for the trial to take place within the time frame laid out under the Speedy Trial Act, and suggested that all he is seeking is “a little time”. Judge Upadhyaya then ordered Mr Lauro to file his request to “toll” the Speedy Trial Act’s requirements in a written motion within five days. A relatively small number of pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators joined the dozens of news outlets and makeshift studios on the courthouse grounds. Law enforcement agencies erected temporary barriers around the building and surrounding streets. Many of the pro-Trump figures who came to Washington appeared to be from the same group of die-hard supporters who flocked to his prior federal arraignment in Miami, including members of the “Blacks for Trump” group often seen behind him at his campaign rallies. Another recognisable personality who came to the courthouse was Randy Credico, a comedian and radio host who gained a measure of prominence when he was a witness at the 2019 trial of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone on charges that the veteran GOP operative lied to Congress and committed witness tampering by threatening to harm Mr Credico’s emotional support dog, a Havanese called Bianca. Mr Stone, who was convicted of those charges, was later pardoned by Mr Trump before he left office. The latest criminal charges against Donald Trump The latest four-count indictment against Mr Trump alleges four crimes: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The indictment also lists six unnamed co-conspirators, including Trump-linked attorneys and Justice Department officials. Prosecutors have outlined a multi-state scheme built on Mr Trump’s legacy of lies and conspiracy theories to undermine the democratic process, culminating with an attack on the US Capitol fuelled by that same baseless narrative. According to prosecutors, then-President Trump and his allies conspired with officials in states that he lost to invalidate ballots and use fraudulent electors to cast their electoral college votes on his behalf, relied on the Justice Department to implement the plan, and pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to certify what was a fraudulent outcome when he presided over a joint session of Congress on 6 January, 2021. After Mr Pence refused, Mr Trump and his alleged co-conspirators “exploited” the chaos from a mob of his supporters to delay the certification and make a last-ditch effort to reverse the results, according to the indictment. “Despite having lost, [Mr Trump] was determined to remain in power,” the indictment states. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. In fact, the Defendant was notified repeatedly that his claims were untrue – often by the people on whom he relied for candid advice on important matters, and who were best positioned to know the facts – and he deliberately disregarded the truth.” Mr Trump and his allies and right-wing pundits have accused President Biden and the US Department of Justice of “weaponising” the federal government against the former president, cast as a victim of political persecution against his Democratic rival. They claim that the latest indictment is a threat to his First Amendment rights to refute his election loss. The indictment, crucially, states that Mr Trump has the right – “like every American” – to falsely state whatever he wants about the election, even to claim victory when in fact has not. What he cannot do, prosecutors argue, is weaponize those lies in a conspiracy to overturn the results. “Each of these conspiracies – built on the widespread mistrust [Mr Trump] was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud – targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government,” according to the indictment. More criminal charges and trials ahead The case is far from Mr Trump’s only legal obstacle as he campaigns for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. Mr Trump faces two other criminal cases that are scheduled for trial next year. The first, starting March 2024, will be in his former home state of New York, where a Manhattan prosecutor in April charged him with falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments used to silence stories of his alleged affairs in the lead-up to his 2016 election, marking the first-ever criminal indictment of a former president. Two months later, he will appear in a South Florida federal courtroom to be tried on a 40-count federal indictment accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at the Palm Beach mansion turned social club where he maintains his primary residence, and conspiring to obstruct a federal probe into his alleged unlawful retention of the documents with the aid of two co-conspirators. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Mr Trump, his three eldest children and his business empire also face a $250m lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James following a three-year civil investigation into allegations of fraud. That case is expected to head to trial on 2 October. And in Georgia, a grand jury is hearing evidence and witness testimony surrounding a pressure campaign from Mr Trump and his allies to overturn 2020 election results in that state following a two-year investigation from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Ms Willis has indicated that potential charges stemming from that investigation would arrive this month. Read More Trump arraignment live updates: Trump heads to DC court to be arraigned for 2020 election charges Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Eight key revelations from Trump’s January 6 indictment Donald Trump’s latest indictment is a test for America Who are Trump’s six alleged co-conspirators in the 2020 election probe case?

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty after being formally arrested and arraigned for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election, in what marks his third – and potentially most serious – criminal case. The former president was indicted on four charges by a grand jury hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the alleged conspiracy to overturn the election and the resulting January 6 Capitol riot. The indictment also described six unnamed co-conspirators, now believed to be identified. Mr Trump made an initial appearance at the E Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse to enter his plea. The government did not seek detention. The former president has railed against the indictment and is calling for the “fake” case to be moved out of Washington DC where he claims it is “IMPOSSIBLE to get a fair trial”. He has also promised revenge for what he calls a politicised indictment of “concocted” charges ordered by “Crooked Joe Biden”. In a Truth Social post, he told supporters “IN 2024, IT WILL BE OUR TURN. MAGA!” The case has been assigned to US district judge Tanya Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee. Read Trump’s full indictment from the January 6 grand jury Read More Will Donald Trump go to prison? Trump pleads not guilty to federal conspiracy charges in plot to overturn 2020 election Trump appears to stumble over his name and age at arraignment

America is bracing for another historic day as former president Donald Trump will be arrested for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election as part of a desperate bid to defy the will of voters and remain at the head of US government. Thirty-one months after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol to try to stop the certification of the 2020 election, Mr Trump is heading to a courthouse nearby to face criminal charges. He is scheduled to appear at E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington DC on Thursday afternoon where he is expected to plead not guilty to all charges. The former president was indicted on four federal charges on Tuesday following an investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith’s office. This marks his third criminal indictment and second federal indictment as his legal troubles continue to mount at a time when he is pursuing his third run at the White House. Here’s how the day unfolded Trump headed to Washington DC Although the ex-president was given the option to appear for his arraignment virtually, he confirmed to followers on Truth Social he would be attending in person. Mr Trump departed from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Thursday afternoon and headed to Newark Liberty International Airport where he boarded a flight to Washington DC. The flight, which is a roughly hour-and-a-half, landed in DC 3.30pm ET. From there, the former president headed to the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse for his scheduled arraignment at 4pm ET. Arrest, fingerprints, mugshot? Mr Trump will likely surrender to authorities at the DC courthouse shortly before his scheduled arraignment time. Once there, he will be processed and likely fingerprinted. Like his previous arrests, Mr Trump is not expected to have his mugshot taken or be placed in handcuffs. He will then appear for his arraignment before Magistrate Judge Moxila A Upadhyaya where he is expected to plead not guilty to the charges. Post-arraignment plans Following his first criminal indictment, Mr Trump gave a live primetime address from his Mar-a-Lago estate where he railed against the charges. After his second criminal indictment, the ex-president gave a speech at his Bedminster golf club. The former president has not announced any post-arraignment plans this time around. But it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to resist commenting on the proceedings – at the very least on his Truth Social platform. Protests and security concerns Security has ramped up in Washington DC ahead of the arraignment. Metal barricades were seen being erected outside the courthouse on Wednesday night while the Secret Service confirmed that it is working with multiple law enforcement agencies to “ensure the highest levels of safety and security”. “While the Secret Service does not comment on specific protective means or methods, we have the utmost confidence in the dedication and commitment to security shared by all of our law enforcement and government partners,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the US Secret Service, said in a statement. “We are working closely with the Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Park Police, U.S. Capitol Police and the Federal Protective Service to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the former president, while minimizing disruptions to the normal court process.” The agency warned Washington DC residents that they could face “short-term traffic implications” in the centre of the capital on Thursday. The E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse is just a few blocks away from the US Capitol where a mob of his supporters staged a violent insurrection to try to overthrow democracy back on 6 January 2021. The charges A grand jury, which has spent months hearing evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, returned a federal indictment on Tuesday hitting him with four federal charges: Conspiracy to defraud the United States Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding Obstruction of, and attempt, to obstruct an official proceeding Conspiracy against rights The allegations in the indictment The former president is accused of conspiring with his allies to overturn the 2020 election, in a bid to sabotage the vote of the American people. The Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges that Mr Trump and his circle of co-conspirators knew that he lost the 2020 election but launched a multi-prong conspiracy to do everything they could to enable him to cling to power. This included allegedly spreading: “knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendant’s opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant,” according to the indictment. Mr Trump and his allies also allegedly plotted to send slates of fake electors to seven “targeted states”: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which President Joe Biden had won. The plan, allegedly, was to get them to falsely certify the election for Mr Trump. The indictment also alleges Mr Trump tried to use the DoJ to “conduct sham election crime investigations”, sending letters to the seven states claiming that “significant concerns” had been found in the elections in those states. The scheme also allegedly involved pushing false claims that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to alter the results and push Mr Pence to “fraudulently alter the election results”. When Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent attack that ended with five deaths, Mr Trump and his co-conspirators allegedly “exploited” the incident by “redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims.” While the former president is the only person charged in the case, the indictment also refers to six co-conspirators who worked with him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Read More Trump indictment – live: Trump shares ominous video ahead of arraignment on 2020 election charges Washington DC braces for Trump arraignment as he returns to alleged scene of the crime Tanya Chutkan: Who is the judge overseeing Trump’s 2020 election probe case? Testimony from Hunter Biden associate provides new insight into their business dealings Moment Trump arrives in Washington DC for arraignment over January 6 probe Live updates: Trump arrives at DC courthouse to face 2020 election arraignment

Less than a mile from where he was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump has arrived at a Washington DC courthouse to face four criminal charges stemming from his attempt to overturn the election he lost to Joe Biden less than three years ago. Mr Trump is expected to plead not guilty to each charge of the four-count indictment in a second-floor courtroom at the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse on 3 August, just a short walk from where a mob of his supporters began assaulting police officers at the start of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. His motorcade entered the courthouse complex through a below-ground entrance after a short drive from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in nearby Virginia, where Mr Trump’s bespoke Boeing 757 had landed following a short flight from Bedminster, New Jersey. Mr Trump is expected to be represented in court by John Lauro, a veteran Washington-based criminal defence attorney, and Todd Blanche, the New York-based lawyer who is leading his defence in the other criminal cases against him. The twice-impeached, now-thrice-indicted ex-president’s appearance in criminal court – his third since April – comes just two days after a Washington DC grand jury charged him with three criminal conspiracies and obstruction in connection with his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In a poetic twist of fate, Mr Trump’s latest arraignment brought him to the exact same courthouse where hundreds of people have been tried, convicted and sentenced to terms in prison as long as 18 years for charges in connection with January 6. Mr Trump, the man Liz Cheney once credited with having “assembled” and “summoned” the riotous mob, is now the latest defendant among them. But more than two years after he exhorted the mob he assembled to march to the Capitol, Mr Trump’s ability to rally crowds to his defence appears to have waned. A relatively small number of pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators joined the dozens of news outlets and makeshift studios on the courthouse grounds. Law enforcement agencies erected temporary barriers around the building and surrounding streets. Many of the pro-Trump figures who came to Washington appeared to be from the same group of die-hard supporters who flocked to his prior federal arraignment in Miami, including members of the “Blacks for Trump” group often seen behind him at his campaign rallies. Another recognisable personality who came to the courthouse was Randy Credico, a comedian and radio host who gained a measure of prominence when he was a witness at the 2019 trial of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone on charges that the veteran GOP operative lied to Congress and committed witness tampering by threatening to harm Mr Credico’s emotional support dog, a Havanese called Bianca. Mr Stone, who was convicted of those charges, was later pardoned by Mr Trump before he left office. The latest criminal charges against Donald Trump The latest four-count indictment against Mr Trump alleges four crimes: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The indictment also lists six unnamed co-conspirators, including Trump-linked attorneys and Justice Department officials. Prosecutors have outlined a multi-state scheme built on Mr Trump’s legacy of lies and conspiracy theories to undermine the democratic process, culminating with an attack on the US Capitol fuelled by that same baseless narrative. According to prosecutors, then-President Trump and his allies conspired with officials in states that he lost to invalidate ballots and use fraudulent electors to cast their electoral college votes on his behalf, relied on the Justice Department to implement the plan, and pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to certify what was a fraudulent outcome when he presided over a joint session of Congress on 6 January, 2021. After Mr Pence refused, Mr Trump and his alleged co-conspirators “exploited” the chaos from a mob of his supporters to delay the certification and make a last-ditch effort to reverse the results, according to the indictment. “Despite having lost, [Mr Trump] was determined to remain in power,” the indictment states. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. In fact, the Defendant was notified repeatedly that his claims were untrue – often by the people on whom he relied for candid advice on important matters, and who were best positioned to know the facts – and he deliberately disregarded the truth.” Mr Trump and his allies and right-wing pundits have accused President Biden and the US Department of Justice of “weaponising” the federal government against the former president, cast as a victim of political persecution against his Democratic rival. They claim that the latest indictment is a threat to his First Amendment rights to refute his election loss. The indictment, crucially, states that Mr Trump has the right – “like every American” – to falsely state whatever he wants about the election, even to claim victory when in fact has not. What he cannot do, prosecutors argue, is weaponize those lies in a conspiracy to overturn the results. “Each of these conspiracies – built on the widespread mistrust [Mr Trump] was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud – targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government,” according to the indictment. More criminal charges and trials ahead The case is far from Mr Trump’s only legal obstacle as he campaigns for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. Mr Trump faces two other criminal cases that are scheduled for trial next year. The first, starting March 2024, will be in his former home state of New York, where a Manhattan prosecutor in April charged him with falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments used to silence stories of his alleged affairs in the lead-up to his 2016 election, marking the first-ever criminal indictment of a former president. Two months later, he will appear in a South Florida federal courtroom to be tried on a 40-count federal indictment accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at the Palm Beach mansion turned social club where he maintains his primary residence, and conspiring to obstruct a federal probe into his alleged unlawful retention of the documents with the aid of two co-conspirators. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Mr Trump, his three eldest children and his business empire also face a $250m lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James following a three-year civil investigation into allegations of fraud. That case is expected to head to trial on 2 October. And in Georgia, a grand jury is hearing evidence and witness testimony surrounding a pressure campaign from Mr Trump and his allies to overturn 2020 election results in that state following a two-year investigation from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Ms Willis has indicated that potential charges stemming from that investigation would arrive this month. Read More Trump arraignment live updates: Trump heads to DC court to be arraigned for 2020 election charges Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Eight key revelations from Trump’s January 6 indictment Donald Trump’s latest indictment is a test for America Who are Trump’s six alleged co-conspirators in the 2020 election probe case?