Trump says he's ready to be arrested

The 45th US president is on the way to Washington to face January 6 riot charges

Being arrested for challenging the 2020 election is a “great honor,” former US president Donald Trump said on Thursday, before getting into a motorcade headed for Washington, DC. He is supposed to appear in court later in the day to answer a six-count indictment by special counsel Jack Smith.

“I am now going to Washington, DC to be arrested for having challenged a corrupt, rigged and stolen election,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “It is a great honor, because I am being arrested for you.”

He ended the post with “Make America Great Again!” the slogan of his winning 2016 presidential campaign. 

On Tuesday, Smith made public a 45-page indictment by a federal grand jury in Washington on charges related to the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol. Smith claimed that Trump knew his claims about irregularities in the 2020 election were false but kept making them, thus creating “an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erod[ing] public faith in the administration of the election.” He also alleged that Trump’s “conspiracies” targeted “a bedrock function of the United States federal government.”

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Trump responded by releasing a fundraising email, telling supporters that the “corrupt” government is trying to lock him up for 561 years – “six lifetimes!” – in order to intimidate Americans into submission.

“There’s only ONE MESSAGE someone can send by trying to throw you in jail for 6 lifetimes, and that’s FEAR. The fear that if you vote for the ONLY candidate who puts you FIRST, you too could be harassed, indicted, and even ARRESTED by the current Marxist regime in Washington,” the email said.

Trump is currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, far ahead of all other contenders. He has consistently argued that there were irregularities in the 2020 election, in which he won 10 million more votes than in 2020 but officially lost to Democrat Joe Biden. 

The January 6, 2021 joint session of Congress was disrupted by protesters just as Republicans were about to object to certification of the state election results. The session was later re-convened under emergency procedures and the results were certified without debate.