Former President Donald Trump's arraignment on January 6 charges featured some very "unusual" moments, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.
Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony counts during a roughly 30-minute arraignment hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The ex-president told reporters after the hearing that he was being "persecuted" by his political opponents. He also denounced the state of the nation's capital, saying that Washington had become riddled with "decay" since he left office two weeks after the January 6 Capitol attack.
The former president was previously charged with 40 federal felony counts related to his handling of classified documents and 34 state felonies accusing him of falsifying business records in New York. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges on which he's been arraigned and frequently says that he is being "persecuted" as the target of a politically motivated "witch hunt."
Weissmann, who served as lead prosecutor in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian election interference, said during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC that Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya provided at least two unusual moments during the ex-president's D.C. arraignment.
"Two things stood out to me as unusual," said Weissmann. "It is not unusual for the magistrate judge to have talked to the assigned district judge to find out what the next date is. What is unusual is ... to be so focused on the trial date."
"That to me, for people who are thinking that [District Judge Tanya Chutkan] is not focused on whether this case can go to trial before the general election, is the issue," he added.
Weissmann then said that the second unusual moment he noticed concerned the "standard condition" language that Upadhyaya delivered to Trump during the arraignment.
"The standard condition that a judge usually emphasizes to a defendant is that they have to show up at each court appearance," Weissmann said. "That is the most important thing."
"The standard condition and most important thing today [was] 'do not commit a crime' followed up by 'do not tamper with a juror,'" he continued. "I was a prosecutor for 21 years and I was a defense lawyer for five years. And I've never heard that."
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche via email on Thursday night.
Trump is scheduled to stand trial in New York in March and in Florida on federal charges in May. The start date of his January 6 trial has yet to be determined.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently signaled that he is ready to set aside Trump's New York trial date to potentially allow for an earlier start to the January 6 trial.
Trump is the frontrunner in the race for the next GOP presidential nomination. The 2024 general election takes places in just over 15 months.
