Trump arrives at courthouse in D.C. for arraignment in DOJ election case

Former President Donald Trump has arrived in a federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on charges related to his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump is in the courtroom, flanked by lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro.

Updated August 3, 2023 at 3:59 PM ET

Special counsel Jack Smith is among those in the courtroom. Smith is seated in the first row. The prosecutors working for him who are seated at the counsel table are Thomas Windom, Molly Gaston and Mary Dohrmann.

Two notable people in the audience are the current Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court, James "Jeb" Boasberg, and former Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, who led the court from 2001-2008. Among the other people in the courtroom is Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Trump who wound up testifying before the grand jury investigating willful retention of classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort after prosecutors successfully pierced the attorney client privilege. Trump was charged with 40 counts in that case.

Trump's appearance comes two days after a federal grand jury indicted Trump on four counts related to conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.

Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential field, has called the charges election interference.

The Department of Justice's investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, is among the most sprawling and complex in U.S. history — it gets at the heart of the alleged effort to overturn legitimate election results and obstruct the peaceful transfer of power.

Tuesday's development is the latest in a series of legal troubles that are likely to loom over next year's presidential election. Trump is the front-runner among Republicans for his party's nomination. He also faces separate federal charges over allegedly obstructing an investigation into classified documents at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.

In addition to these federal charges, Trump is fighting criminal charges over accounting for hush money payments in Manhattan; a defamation lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, the writer; and a grand jury investigation in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state.

Trump's refusal to acknowledge the results began on election night, when he took to the stage at his campaign headquarters and claimed that he was the rightful winner and that the election was being stolen through fraud.

It was a false allegation that he would push repeatedly—and continues to do so even now.

In the weeks following the election, Trump's campaign pursued dozens of lawsuits in states where Trump lost. Courts repeatedly rejected the Trump team's election fraud claims.

And yet, Trump refused to acknowledge what even his own top advisers were telling him at the time: there was no evidence of widespread fraud that would change the election's outcome.

Instead, he continued to push his false claims of fraud and to raise money off of them. According to the House Jan. 6 Committee, Trump raised nearly $250 million between election day and Jan. 6, 2021.

As 2020 came to a close, Trump began to turn up the pressure on Pence, seeking his help to remain in office.

Members of Congress were set to meet Jan. 6 to certify the Electoral College count and Joe Biden's victory.

Trump, leaning on legal theories proposed by outside attorney John Eastman, wanted Pence to refuse to count certain electoral college votes—a theory that Pence rejected as unconstitutional.

Eastman is currently fighting to retain his law license. The State Bar of California opened a case against him in June and has argued that Eastman knowingly and willfully pushed false allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, Trump advisers were pursuing a fake elector scheme, pushing Republican officials in states like Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia to put forward an alternate slate of electors even though Biden had won those states.

Ultimately, Pence rebuffed Trump's pressure and refused on Jan. 6, 2021 to block the certification of Biden's election win.

But as Congress was meeting on Capitol Hill, Trump was hosting a rally down by the White House. In a long, rambling speech, he repeated his claims of election fraud, told the crowd to "fight like hell" and to march to Congress.

Thousands of Trump supporters did just that. They marched from the Ellipse to the Capitol, where they fought through police lines, stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers fleeing for safety.

Around 140 police officers were injured defending Congress that day, according to the Justice Department.

Law enforcement regained control of the Capitol hours later, allowing lawmakers to return and finish certifying Biden's victory.

The Justice Department immediately launched a nationwide investigation — one of the largest in DOJ history — to track down those who broke into the Capitol and hold them accountable. So far, more than 1,100 people have been arrested in connection with the attack.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

For the latest developments on Donald Trump's court appearance, follow our digital live coverage. [Copyright 2023 NPR]