Trump indictment live updates: Ex-president says he's going to D.C. to be arrested

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he has been questioned in one of the investigations into Trump.

Christie, a former ally to the former president who has since become one of his loudest Republican critics, revealed his involvement in a Trump probe during an interview on the podcast “On with Kara Swisher.”

Christie declined to say which investigation he had participated in. But he said his questioners “were trying to get a handle on what I knew about his knowledge of the reality of the election results.

He said he was questioned between six and eight weeks ago.

“I was honest,” he added.

Christie’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the former governor’s remarks.

— Kevin Breuninger

Bill Barr, who served as Trump’s attorney general, said the former president “doesn’t care” about the lives that might have been ruined by participating in the Jan. 6 riot and from serving in his government.

“No, he doesn’t care about that,” Barr said in a CNN interview. “Loyalty is a one-way street for him.”

Barr also said he thinks the new indictment against Trump is “a legitimate case.”

But, he added that he was concerned “about the slippery slope of criminalizing legitimate political activity.”

That said, Barr dismissed the idea floated by Trump’s lawyers that he is being charged for political speech that is protected by his First Amendment constitutional right.

“I really don’t think that’s a valid argument,” Barr said. “They’re not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech, and all fraud involves speech.”

“Free speech doesn’t give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy,” he said.

— Dan Mangan

Special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment alleges a monthslong effort by Trump and a half-dozen co-conspirators to overturn his 2020 election loss through a shifting, multi-layered conspiracy that ran afoul of multiple federal statutes.

Trump is accused of perpetrating three criminal conspiracies:

1. A conspiracy to defraud the United States “by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat” the lawful certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory,
2. A conspiracy “to corruptly obstruct and impede” the Jan. 6, 2021, congressional proceeding where the Electoral College results were certified, and
3. A conspiracy against “the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”

Prosecutors say the first of those conspiracies violated 18 U.S.C. § 371, Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.

The second conspiracy violated 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k), Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, they allege.

The third conspiracy allegedly violated 18 U.S.C. § 241, Conspiracy Against Rights.

The four-count indictment also charges Trump with violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2), 2, Obstruction of an Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump said on social media that he is en route to Washington, D.C., for his arrest and arraignment on charges of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“I AM NOW GOING TO WASHINGTON, D.C., TO BE ARRESTED FOR HAVING CHALLENGED A CORRUPT, RIGGED, & STOLEN ELECTION,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at 12:01 p.m. ET.

“IT IS A GREAT HONOR, BECAUSE I AM BEING ARRESTED FOR YOU. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

— Kevin Breuninger

As the former president faces mounting legal peril, Melania Trump has largely disappeared from public life.

After steadfastly standing by her husband for years, the former first lady did not appear at Trump’s side for his two previous arraignments on charges of falsifying business records and mishandling classified documents.

And she has not commented publicly on her husband’s latest and most serious indictment on charges related to his attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

CNBC has reached out to the former president’s campaign to see if Melania Trump will be will be with him at the arraignment.

Melania Trump has also been absent from the campaign trail. She has turned down requests from her husband to appear at his side as he leads the pack of Republican candidates trying to clinch the party’s presidential nomination, according to a recent profile published in The New York Times.

People close to the former first lady told the Times that she wants to protect her privacy and is focused on helping her son Barron with his college search.

Though she’s been absent from the limelight, Trump’s Save America political action committee reported spending $108,000 in the first part of the year on Hervé Pierre, the fashion designer who has worked with former first lady Melania Trump. Save America listed the expense as “strategy consulting.”

— Spencer Kimball

Trump “knew well he lost” the 2020 presidential election, former Attorney General Bill Barr said on the eve of the former president’s arraignment.

Barr served under Trump from early 2019 to December 2020. As Trump was spreading conspiracy theories about a rigged election in the weeks after November 2020, Barr announced that his office had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The special counsel indictment accuses Trump of spreading fraud claims that he knew to be false, and then using those claims as the basis for a conspiracy to overturn the election results.

Trump’s defense attorney John Lauro argued Wednesday that Trump’s actions were aimed to “get at the truth.”

But Barr said on CNN on Wednesday night, “At first I wasn’t sure, but I have come to believe that he knew well that he had lost the election.”

The government is “going to have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said, adding that that is a “high bar.”

But Barr also said he believes the government has more evidence to reveal.

“We’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this indictment,” Barr said.

— Kevin Breuninger

Workers set up security barricades around E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse as former President Donald Trump travels to the nation’s capital city for his arraignment hearing.

The 4:00 p.m.arraignment is the third time this year the former president has faced criminal charges.