WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former President Donald Trump arrived in Washington, DC, Thursday afternoon to make his first appearance in federal court following Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of January 6.
“This is a very sad day for America,” Trump told reporters outside the Reagan National Airport following his court appearance on Thursday. “This is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America.”
Breitbart News accompanied Trump on his trip to D.C. where the 45th president arrived on Trump Force One at approximately 2:50 p.m. ET and made his way to the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse near the United States Capitol.
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Alana Mastrangelo / Breitbart News
While Trump was at the courthouse, his attorney, Alina Habba, told reporters outside that it was “not a coincidence” that charges were filed against the 45th president after negative news has been coming out about Joe Biden and his family.
“The fact that I am standing here for the third time in five months is not a coincidence,” Habba said. “This is the Biden political lawfare that we have seen time and time again. It is a deflection from everything that they have done.”
Trump’s attorney then proceeded to point out that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump the day after Hunter Biden accidentally admitted that the “laptop from hell” was his.
In addition to that, the FBI Mar-a-Lago raid and indictment occurred right after an FBI document was released showing that the Ukrainians paid the Biden family millions of dollars, Habba noted.
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“Last week, Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal fell through when the judge realized it had blanket immunity — the following day: a superseding indictment against Donald Trump,” Habba continued. “July 31, Devon Archer goes to testify in front of the House — what happens the next day? The January 6 indictment.”
“This is not a coincidence,” Habba reiterated. “This is election interference at its finest against the leading candidate right now for president, for either party. President Trump is under siege in a way that we have never seen before.”
Habba went on to say that “a witch-hunt” is the best way to describe these indictments.
“It’s not something we’ve seen in our time,” she said. “People are afraid of somebody that cannot be bought by Washington. People are afraid of somebody who is independently wealthy, and who has given up his good life to fight for this country — that frightens a lot of politicians, who are career politicians.”
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Alana Mastrangelo / Breitbart News
In response to a question on if this case should go forward before the 2024 presidential election, Habba said this is “not about the January 6 case.”
“It’s about the fact that in the matter of a couple months, we have seen them try and tie up — and me, as an attorney, I’ve never seen this — tie up one individual who’s running a campaign, running for office for president, so that he’s in court, in depositions, and distracted, so that he won’t properly run in 2024. And, frankly, it’s not going to work.”
After being asked, “Why not bring it to trial as soon as possible before the election,” Trump’s attorney said, “I would love to do that, but there’s something called discovery. And when somebody wants to say that the 2020 election was perfect and that President Trump has no right to object to it, we’ve got to go show them all the facts, and there’s a lot of facts to show.”
“Everybody has their time, and to say that Donald Trump should then be rushed and not be given the same fair proceeding that anybody else is just frankly un-American. It’s not fair.” Habba added.
Trump’s team also distributed to reporters a document that points out Trump is penalized after every time Biden and his family are in the news for shady behavior.
Trump campaign staffers handed this out today to reporters in the motorcade with him en route to DC courthouse, including our own @ARmastrangelo. pic.twitter.com/aWQDAqcH8X
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 3, 2023
After an RSBN reporter pointed out that failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams argued about the results of their elections and never faced a weaponization of the DOJ, Habba said, “Of course — but if your last name is Trump, it’s very different.”
“So, Hillary Clinton can have a problem when she lost the election, and we can have a complete liberal meltdown, as we all saw,” she said. “But when we have dignified disagreements, we take them to court, we say ‘Do things patriotically and peacefully.’ [Trump’s] to blame for things that he did not himself do.”
Trump’s attorney concluded by asserting that this indictment is not actually about January 6. “This is about politics,” she said. “This is about 2024. Period.”
Inside the courthouse, Trump pleaded not guilty to charges alleging that he attempted to overturn the 2020 election results and left the building after being inside the courthouse for roughly one hour.
After exiting the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse, Trump got into his motorcade and headed back to the Reagan National Airport where he addressed reporters outside before boarding his plane to leave.
.@realDonaldTrump walks toward the media to make a statement, “This is a very sad day for America” after pleading not-guilty on all charges. pic.twitter.com/Ii1OYDfaIH
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) August 3, 2023
“This is a very sad day for America,” Trump said. “And 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. This is not the place that I left. It’s a very sad thing to see it.”
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Alana Mastrangelo / Breitbart News
“When you look at what’s happening, this is a persecution of a political opponent,” Trump continued. “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,” he added. “So if you can’t beat him, you persecute him, or you prosecute him. We can’t let this happen in America.”
The 45th president then boarded Trump Force One and left the Reagan National Airport at 5:25 p.m. ET on Thursday.
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Alana Mastrangelo / Breitbart News
On Tuesday, Trump was indicted by a Washington, DC, grand jury on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights, in relation to the January 6 capitol riots.
Notably, the indictment was announced the day after President Joe Biden had been implicated in a long-running influence peddling scheme by his son Hunter’s former business partner, Devon Archer, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
