Trump indictment live updates: Trump arrested and headed to arraignment hearing on 2020 election charges

Court is now in session as Judge Moxila Upadhyaya enters the courtroom.

The United States of America v Donald J Trump has been called.

As the court awaits the judge, a lot is being made of Trump and Smith’s glances and body language.

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg, reporting from the courthouse, writes:

Jack Smith, the Department of Justice special counsel who has supervised the multiple federal investigations that have resulted in criminal charges against the former president, arrived in the courtroom at 3.45 pm, a quarter-hour before the proceedings were set to begin. Mr Smith entered the courtroom with members of his team, but sat at a bench in front of the bar which separated the working part of the courtroom from the spectator area where a small group of reporters had assembled more than an hour before to allow for security screenings by Secret Service.

One member of Mr Trump’s defence team, Evan Corcoran, entered the room four minutes after Mr Smith and sat on a similar bench across the room’s central aisle.

The ex-president entered at 3.51 pm, accompanied by John Lauro, a veteran Washington-based criminal defence attorney, and Todd Blanche, the New York-based lawyer who is leading his defence in the other criminal cases against him.

Mr Trump, wearing his customary red tie, white shirt and dark blue suit, sat impassively between Mr Blanche and Mr Lauro. After the ex-president and his team were seated, Mr Smith was seen glancing over at the defendant and counsel.

Former President Donald Trump has now entered the courtroom wearing his customary blue suit and red tie.

He is seated at the defence table alongside his attorneys and was followed into the room by a number of Secret Service agents.

Unlikely there is any love lost between the two of them.

How far can a president go to cling to power?

Todd Blanche, an attorney for Trump, has notified the court that he will appear and represent the former president in this case.

Sources previously told NBC News that Blanche had met with prosecutors from the special counsel’s office last week, days before Trump was indicted.

Less than a mile from where he was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump has arrived at a Washington DC courthouse to face four criminal charges stemming from his attempt to overturn the election he lost to Joe Biden less than three years ago.

Mr Trump is expected to plead not guilty to each charge of the four-count indictment in a second-floor courtroom at the E Barrett Prettyman Courthouse on 3 August, just a short walk from where a mob of his supporters began assaulting police officers at the start of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

That’s what some of his supporters incorrectly believe, as Josh Marcus reports.