- Title: 'This is the main event' - legal expert on latest Trump indictment
- Date: 2nd August 2023
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 2, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL, PROFESSOR OF LAW, JOHN COFFEE, SAYING: “The obstruction of a governmental proceeding can be punished by up to 20 years. But it's unrealistic to think that any federal judge will sentence a 77-year-old man with no prior convictions and arguably a blameless record of high governmental service. So, I think if he got time, it would be a very short time. A symbolic year and a day, something like that. I don't think you're going to get 20-year sentences imposed by any judge. Now, they have picked the judge by random assignment, and she's said something of a firebrand. She's quite outspoken. There will probably [be] motions challenging her neutrality. But all she said, she has sentenced a number of the defendants, because there have been hundreds of these cases involving the individuals who entered the capital. And she has sentenced them, saying this was an attempt to overthrow the government. This was very serious conduct. And we'll have to see if the American public realizes how serious misbehavior this was.â€
- Embargoed: 16th August 2023 16:10
- Keywords: 2020 election Trump indictment legal reaction
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA007175002082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A legal expert characterized the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump as "the main event" in an interview with Reuters Wednesday (August 2).
"This is center stage. This is American history," said John Coffee, professor of law at Columbia Law School.
Trump was indicted on Tuesday (August 1) for his wide-ranging attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the third time in four months that the former U.S. president has been criminally charged even as he campaigns to regain the presidency next year.
“What stands out to me above all else is that this indictment, which is very well written, is aimed at one thing: expediting the possibility of a trial before the '24 election," Coffee said.
The four-count, 45-page indictment charges Republican Trump with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's victory and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election.
Then-President Trump pushed fraud claims he knew to be untrue, pressured state and federal officials - including Vice President Mike Pence - to alter the results and finally incited a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in a desperate attempt to undermine American democracy and cling to power, prosecutors said.
Trump was ordered to make an initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Thursday (August 3). The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama.
(Production: Christine Kiernan) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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