Donald Trump on Wednesday was preparing for his latest court appearance after federal prosecutors accused the former US president of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Mr Trump is due in court in Washington for an expected arraignment at 4pm local time on Thursday.
He has responded to his new indictment by claiming it shows the Department of Justice is politically persecuting him in an attempt to undermine his bid to reclaim the White House in 2024.
In a 45-page indictment, unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors accuse the Republican front-runner of repeatedly lying about the election results and engaging in a conspiracy to “disenfranchise millions of voters” by installing puppet representatives to support his election claims in Congress.
Mr Trump's claims of having won the election were “false, and the defendant knew they were false”, the indictment states.
“But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and to erode public faith in the administration of the election.”
The indictment is potentially the most serious legal setback for Mr Trump so far.
He has also been accused of illegally taking classified information from the White House and showing off a war plan to attack Iran in a federal case in Florida, and a state case in New York accuses him of illegal payments during the 2016 election campaign. The former president has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
The judge in the Florida case is a Trump appointee and potential jurors there lean Republican, so Mr Trump could be on favourable ground when his case begins in May. The New York case, related to hush-money payments to an adult film star, appears to be the least legally perilous of the three prosecutions.
Another investigation into election interference is under way in Georgia and could yield a fourth indictment.
So far, the three criminal cases, as well as several lawsuits including one that found him liable for sexual assault, have done nothing to dent Mr Trump's popularity among his Republican supporters and he has seen a spike in contributions after each case was unveiled.
Mr Trump boasted on his Truth Social media platform that he was receiving unprecedented backing.
“Thank you to everyone!” he wrote on Wednesday. “I have never had so much support of anything before”.
He also accused the special counsel who brought the indictment, Jack Smith, of being “deranged” and of engaging in “prosecutorial misconduct”.
The November 4, 2020, election saw Mr Trump lose the popular vote to Democrat Joe Biden by more than seven million votes, but the Republican has maintained he won by a landslide.
Two months of false statements about the election results fuelled widespread anger among Mr Trump's base, who believed his claim the presidency had been “stolen” from him.
Their fury led to the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol, where a mob of Trump supporters broke into the building, shortly after he gave a speech during which he told supporters to “fight like hell”.
The insurrection was “fuelled by lies – lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government: the nation's process of collecting counting and certifying the results of the presidential election”, Mr Smith said.
January 6 insurrection – in pictures
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
