Trump arraignment live updates: Ex-president arrives at courthouse to be fingerprinted, face election interference charges

Former President Donald Trump is facing an avalanche of criminal charges as he mounts a campaign to secure the Republican nomination and take back the White House from President Joe Biden in 2024.

Trump has managed to rack up 78 criminal charges across three separate jurisdictions in a matter of just three months.

The charges range from falsifying business records in New York, to mishandling classified documents in Florida, to defrauding the entire nation in an attempt to overturn a free and fair presidential election.

In New York, the Manhattan District Attorney has slapped the former president with 34 criminal counts for falsifying business records in an attempt to silence two women during his 2016 presidential campaign.

In Florida, special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump on 40 counts related to mishandling classified government documents.

And in the nation’s capital, Smith has charged the former president with four criminal counts related to his attempt to invalidate the 2020 election. Trump’s lies about the election ultimately resulted in the violent mob attack against Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

The most serious charges in the classified documents and Jan. 6 cases carry 20 years in prison.

And the president’s legal morass probably is not over yet. He is under investigation in Georgia for his attempt to overturn Biden’s victory there, with indictments expected as soon as this month.

Despite Trump’s legal woes, he remains far and away the Republican favorite for the 2024 presidential nomination.

— Spencer Kimball

As Trump heads to court, his lawyers have already laid the ground for his defense in the case: The constitutional right to free speech.

“There’s nothing that’s more protected under the First Amendment than political speech,” his attorney, John Lauro, told CNN right after Trump was indicted in the case.

“Donald Trump had every right to advocate for his position,” Lauro said.

“Now his advocacy is being criminalized,” the lawyer added.

Lauro’s theory hinges on the idea that Trump is protected from prosecution because he was stating a political opinion that he was the victim of widespread ballot fraud in the 2020 election, and that the actions he took were in response to that.

But the indictment includes evidence that indicates Trump knew he had actually lost to Biden, and argues that that knowledge, and other factors, made his effort to undo his loss fraudulent.

“Free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy,” Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr told CNN.

— Dan Mangan

The Atlanta prosecutor who is considering soon indicting Trump for interfering in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election said she read the new federal indictment against him for such efforts nationally, but it won’t affect any of her potential charges.

“I took an oath and that oath requires that I follow the law, that if someone broke the law in Fulton County, Georgia, that I have a duty to prosecute, and that’s exactly what I plan to do,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said.

Willis is a state prosecutor, not a federal one, and as such has discretion over whether to file state charges against Trump that could mirror claims in the Department of Justice’s prosecution of him.

Willis, who is Black, described some of the vitriol she’s received since she opened the probe of Trump, a White man who has called her and another black prosecutor, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, “racists.”

“I’ve probably been called the N-word more times in the last two and a half years than 100 people combined,” she said.

— Dan Mangan

Special counsel Jack Smith’s motorcade has departed from his office, NBC News reported.

Smith’s office is roughly a 10-minute drive from the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse where Trump is slated to soon arrive.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump’s plane has arrived at Reagan National Airport ahead of his court appearance in D.C.

The plane, a Boeing 757 jet nicknamed “Trump Force One,” took off from an airport in Newark, New Jersey shortly after 2 p.m. ET.

— Kevin Breuninger

Former President Donald Trump railed against President Joe Biden and his family just hours before the 45th president was due to appear in federal court for an arraignment hearing.

“Biden and his family steal Millions and Millions of Dollars, including BRIBES from foreign countries, and I’m headed to D.C. to be arrested for protesting a CROOKED ELECTION,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social.

“Unfair venue, unfair judge. We are a nation in decline. MAGA!!!”

Trump’s campaign wrote in a statement that the Biden administration directed federal prosecutor Jack Smith to lead the investigation, which it described as “an unprecedented act of election interference.”

— Amanda Macias

Mike Pence’s presidential campaign is looking to cash in on Trump’s latest criminal charges with a new line of merch that leans into the ex-vice president’s break with his former boss over the 2020 election results.

Pence was at the center of an alleged scheme by Trump and his co-conspirators to challenge President Joe Biden’s electoral victory by rejecting key electoral votes during the certification process at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Pence had refused, saying his ceremonial role presiding over Congress on that day did not give him the authority to reject those votes.

The indictment alleges that five days before Jan. 6, Trump called Pence and “berated” him for opposing a lawsuit that claimed the vice president could send back votes during the certification. When Pence pushed back, Trump told him, “You’re too honest.”

On Thursday afternoon, Pence’s campaign started selling baseball caps and T-shirts with “Too Honest” emblazoned in red letters on the front. The hats sell for $27 and the shirts go for $30.

— Kevin Breuninger

Far from the action in Washington, President Joe Biden is vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Biking by reporters, Biden said “no” when asked if he was following the arraignment, NBC reported.

— Emma Kinery

Trump will have his fingerprints taken digitally as part of the booking process but authorities will not take a mugshot of the former president, a U.S. Marshals spokesperson told NBC News.

An existing photo of the president will be used for his booking, the spokesperson said.

No mugshots were taken during Trump’s previous arraignments on charges of falsifying business records and mishandling classified documents.

— Spencer Kimball

Trump’s motorcade was seen departing from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club ahead of his 4 p.m. ET court appearance in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Images apparently taken from helicopters overhead showed Trump wearing a blue suit and a red tie as he entered the motorcade and left the property.

— Kevin Breuninger

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he has been questioned in one of the investigations into Trump.

Christie, a former ally to the former president who has since become one of his loudest Republican critics, revealed his involvement in a Trump probe during an interview on the podcast “On with Kara Swisher.”

Christie declined to say which investigation he had participated in. But he said his questioners “were trying to get a handle on what I knew about his knowledge of the reality of the election results.”

He said he was questioned between six and eight weeks ago.

“I was honest,” he added.

Christie’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the former governor’s remarks.

— Kevin Breuninger

Bill Barr, who served as Trump’s attorney general, said the former president “doesn’t care” about the lives that might have been ruined by participating in the Jan. 6 riot and from serving in his government.

“No, he doesn’t care about that,” Barr said in a CNN interview. “Loyalty is a one-way street for him.”

Barr also said he thinks the new indictment against Trump is “a legitimate case.”

But, he added that he was concerned “about the slippery slope of criminalizing legitimate political activity.”

That said, Barr dismissed the idea floated by Trump’s lawyers that he is being charged for political speech that is protected by his First Amendment constitutional right.

“I really don’t think that’s a valid argument,” Barr said. “They’re not attacking his First Amendment right. 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.”

“Free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy,” he said.

— Dan Mangan

Special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment alleges a monthslong effort by Trump and a half-dozen co-conspirators to overturn his 2020 election loss through a shifting, multi-layered conspiracy that ran afoul of multiple federal statutes.

Trump is accused of perpetrating three criminal conspiracies:

1. A conspiracy to defraud the United States “by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat” the lawful certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory,
2. A conspiracy “to corruptly obstruct and impede” the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional proceeding where the Electoral College results were certified, and
3. A conspiracy against “the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”

Prosecutors say the first of those conspiracies violated 18 U.S.C. § 371, Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.

The second conspiracy violated 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k), Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, they allege.

The third conspiracy allegedly violated 18 U.S.C. § 241, Conspiracy Against Rights.

The four-count indictment also charges Trump with violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2), 2, Obstruction of an Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump said on social media that he is en route to Washington, D.C., for his arrest and arraignment on charges of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“I AM NOW GOING TO WASHINGTON, D.C., TO BE ARRESTED FOR HAVING CHALLENGED A CORRUPT, RIGGED, & STOLEN ELECTION,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at 12:01 p.m. ET.

“IT IS A GREAT HONOR, BECAUSE I AM BEING ARRESTED FOR YOU. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

But Trump won’t actually be arrested when he enters federal court to respond to his summons, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

“He is going today to appear for a summons and that’s it,” said Brady McCarron, deputy chief of public affairs for the USMS, in a phone call with CNBC.

“He is not being arrested. There is no mugshot, there are no handcuffs,” McCarron said.

— Kevin Breuninger

As the former president faces mounting legal peril, Melania Trump has largely disappeared from public life.

After steadfastly standing by her husband for years, the former first lady did not appear at Trump’s side for his two previous arraignments on charges of falsifying business records and mishandling classified documents.

And she has not commented publicly on her husband’s latest and most serious indictment on charges related to his attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

CNBC has reached out to the former president’s campaign to see if Melania Trump will be will be with him at the arraignment.

Melania Trump has also been absent from the campaign trail. She has turned down requests from her husband to appear at his side as he leads the pack of Republican candidates trying to clinch the party’s presidential nomination, according to a recent profile published in The New York Times.

People close to the former first lady told the Times that she wants to protect her privacy and is focused on helping her son Barron with his college search.

Though she’s been absent from the limelight, Trump’s Save America political action committee reported spending $108,000 in the first part of the year on Hervé Pierre, the fashion designer who has worked with former first lady Melania Trump. Save America listed the expense as “strategy consulting.”

— Spencer Kimball

Trump “knew well he lost” the 2020 presidential election, former Attorney General Bill Barr said on the eve of the former president’s arraignment.

Barr served under Trump from early 2019 to December 2020. As Trump was spreading conspiracy theories about a rigged election in the weeks after November 2020, Barr announced that his office had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The special counsel indictment accuses Trump of spreading fraud claims that he knew to be false, and then using those claims as the basis for a conspiracy to overturn the election results.

Trump’s defense attorney John Lauro argued Wednesday that Trump’s actions were aimed to “get at the truth.”

But Barr said on CNN on Wednesday night, “At first I wasn’t sure, but I have come to believe that he knew well that he had lost the election.”

The government is “going to have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said, adding that that is a “high bar.”

But Barr also said he believes the government has more evidence to reveal.

“We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this indictment,” Barr said.

— Kevin Breuninger

Workers set up security barricades around E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse as former President Donald Trump travels to the nation’s capital city for his arraignment hearing.

The 4:00 p.m.arraignment is the third time this year the former president has faced criminal charges.