Security Heightened as DC Federal Court Braces for Trump’s Arrest and Arraignment

A sweeping security perimeter went up overnight Thursday in Washington D.C., where Donald Trump is set to be arrested later in the afternoon for the third time this year and arraigned on charges he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election that he lost.  

Some 40 reporters and their professional line-sitters camped through the night outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, surrounded by Homeland Security officials, U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement. 

They were in the proverbial shadow of the U.S. Capitol that was the site of the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, that’s featured in the four-count federal indictment against Trump that special counsel Jack Smith secured earlier this week. 

Before dawn, authorities surrounded the building with metal barricades lined with yellow tape from the U.S. Marshals Service, outfitted with the agency logo and the warning “DO NOT CROSS.” Officers were also spotted from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and National Park Service.

An hour before sunrise, authorities moved the press queue to the other side of the courthouse for security reasons other than the usual ones associated with prosecuting a former president: Rush hour traffic was about to descend upon Washington, D.C. 

Whether in New York, Florida, Georgia or the nation’s capital, federal and local authorities working in jurisdictions where Trump has been under criminal investigation have braced for the possibility of his supporters violently protesting the prosecution of the 45th president.

So far, his two prior arraignments in Manhattan and Miami proceeded mostly peacefully, but D.C. authorities remain on alert because of the unique nature of this case.

In Washington, Trump is charged in connection with the events leading up to the assault on the U.S. Capitol. Five police officers died after those attacks, including four by suicide, and one rioter was fatally shot while trying to climb through a smashed window to access the "Speaker's Lobby" where lawmakers had been hiding. Federal prosecutors have since charged more than 1,000 people on the sprawling Jan. 6 docket, including the seditious conspiracy cases of the leaders of two extremists groups and hundreds accused of assaulting U.S. Capitol and D.C. police. 

Now, Trump joins their ranks in the same courthouse, facing charges of conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and a criminal analogue of the Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law designed to protect the civil rights of freedmen and women in the wake of the Civil War. 

The long-anticipated indictment brought out a smattering of largely muted protests, including a pro-Trump supporter whom photographers captured waving a "Trump Won" sign out the window of a presidential limousine lookalike.

Late on Wednesday afternoon, nearly a full day before Trump’s first court date here, New York retiree Domenic Santana showed up to the press queue in a cartoonish, black-and-white striped prison uniform, replete with a plastic mockup of a metal ball and chain hanging around his neck. 

Santana showed off a “LOCK HIM UP” sign in block letters against an orange backdrop, and another the other side of his placard, a doctored image of a bald, aged Trump in a jumpsuit and a sour expression.

“It’s artificial intelligence,” Santana told reporters, in an unnecessary clarification — among other reasons — because a real Trump mugshot doesn’t exist.

The 61-year-old retiree cheerfully contributed to a brewing carnival-like atmosphere.

“It’s a circus,” Santana said. “That’s how the world looks at America. And I get to be part of the circus.” 

The long lines outside the federal courthouse were a sign of the historic nature of the proceedings, and the journalistic impulse to be as close to the action as possible.

Court officials late Wednesday disclosed there'd be 100 seats made available to members of the press inside a media room that pipes in a closed-circuit television feed from the court room. Importantly, reporters are allowed to use their electronic devices from the work space that will allow them to send out instant dispatches during Trump's arraignment. Television and still photography, or any other method of live recording the events, is not permitted in the federal courts.

There's also another 150 overflow seats available to the public and even more limited access to the courtroom itself where Trump's arraignment will actually take place.