U.S. to wrap security blanket around D.C. courthouse for Trump trial
U.S. officials are debating how thick of a security blanket they will wrap around the federal courthouse in downtown Washington for former president Donald Trump’s trial - a practical and symbolic measure of the case’s importance that must balance safety with the ongoing functions of a city and a public courthouse, according to people familiar with discussions.
Proposed changes for what could be the first criminal trial of a former American president include ringing all or part of the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse as early as February with metal fencing, closing or controlling sidewalk access for several blocks, and temporarily closing neighboring streets in the heart of the city, two of the people said. The goal is to create an additional security buffer between the proceedings inside and the public outside, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss pending security plans.
The barriers will pose a visual reminder of the police barricades erected before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and its grounds, which sit 300 yards from the courthouse across an open expanse of the National Mall. The preparations come amid rising threats to public officials, including judges and prosecutors in Trump’s cases, and the prediction from the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination of “bedlam in the country” if his criminal cases damage his candidacy this year.
Changes could begin before it is known whether the Supreme Court will allow Trump’s scheduled March 4 trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election to proceed, one official said. But more concrete actions are likelier in the weeks ahead of a confirmed trial date. That date remains in limbo pending Trump’s appeal that he is immune from prosecution for official actions taken while president, and developments in a New York state prosecution accusing Trump of business fraud. Several people emphasized that the scope and timing of the security perimeter is still to be finalized, with some of the most disruptive potential changes - restricting traffic on the busy Constitution and Pennsylvania avenue NW corridors - not under consideration for now as consultations continue with participating agencies.
The planning will fortify a courthouse on a famous stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue NW between the White House and Capitol transited by presidents for inaugural parades and State of the Union addresses - and by angry supporters whom Trump allegedly sent to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6.
For a multiweek trial of Trump in D.C. or elsewhere, “security plans are going to be much more robust than the quick, one-day, in-and-outs” that the public has seen for Trump’s appearances over the past year in Washington, or in New York City, Atlanta or South Florida, where he also faces criminal charges, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
“If he’s here for the duration, you’re not only talking about the courthouse but where the protectee will stay, ensuring that area is fortified and protected,” Guglielmi said. “It’s just a totally different plan.” Guglielmi declined to discuss details because security planners don’t have all the specifics yet. He added, “We’re going to create the safest environment possible for movements of the protectee … while creating the least amount of disruption for the community.”
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Who is involved in the planning?
Trump’s appearance in early January at the courthouse, where a panel of federal appellate judges held oral arguments over his immunity claim, provided a glimpse of the potential impact to come over a weeks-long trial. Police sealed off block-long sections of Third and C streets NW with bright-orange biodiesel trucks, squad cars and bike racks, as they did for Trump’s Aug. 3 arraignment. Law enforcement patrolled sidewalks and shooed away bystanders while Trump’s Secret Service-escorted motorcade whisked him in and out of the building’s secure underground garage.
Inside, wireless service was interrupted and all but one of the court’s entrances were closed. Visitors were screened twice before being let into the courtroom, while case participants avoided public hallways and moved between the garage and courtroom using back entrances out of public view.
For a longer trial, authorities plan to expand a security perimeter outside the courthouse with non-scalable fencing, one person said. C Street NW, which runs between the courthouse and D.C. police headquarters, may be closed, and media trucks may be barred from staging on a plaza at the bend of Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues NW near the George Gordon Meade Memorial. Plans for demonstrators also are being drafted, and for a heavy security presence for any verdict.
“We’re well aware of the importance of finding the proper balance between security for the trial and all of its participants, as well as public and media access to the courts and other ongoing proceedings,” said Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, who along with spokesmen for Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the U.S. Marshals Service and D.C. police declined to discuss specifics raised by people interviewed for this report.
Security analysts said officials are focused on protecting Trump and all trial participants, securing the courthouse and its operations, and ensuring the safety of key players and the public, including demonstrators, bystanders, pedestrians and motorists.
“The lesson from January 6, 2021, is to be overly cautious and well-prepared in terms of security for any event or venue where there is even a slight chance of an attack,” said Bruce Hoffman, a veteran counterterrorism and homeland security fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-author with Jacob Ware of the new book “God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-right Terrorism in America.” The Marshals Service and other federal agencies “will almost certainly put on a visible show of force for its deterrent value in hopefully prompting anyone who might be contemplating any kind of disruption to think twice, since the likelihood of its succeeding given the security measures in place will be low to nil.”
The federal courthouse sits amid a patchwork of federal and D.C. jurisdictions and is surrounded by security-sensitive neighbors, including the Canadian Embassy, D.C. police headquarters and courts, U.S. Labor Department and National Gallery of Art. Security decision-making is driven by the Marshals Service and the U.S. district and appeals courts in consultation with the Secret Service and D.C. police. The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service, which guards federal buildings, and the National Park Service’s U.S. Park Police, which protects the National Mall and some park space and plazas near the court, also are part of the mix.
If Trump were still president, planning would be led by the Secret Service, current and former officials said. Because he is not, the Marshals Service and D.C. police have a larger stake in securing the courthouse and any demonstrations or street issues, they said. The Secret Service will remain responsible for Trump’s movements to and from the courthouse, whether from Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., or the hotel he used to own near the courthouse - where he stopped before and after January’s appeals court argument - or elsewhere.
Guglielmi said engineers, scientists and technicians will account for not just weapons but also physical and environmental threats to the courthouse and a security perimeter for a trial that could last weeks. “Of all the cities in the United States, Washington, D.C., is among the best equipped, prepared, and accustomed to hosting protectees” and high-ranking officials, with security agencies conducting dozens of movements a day, he said.
Spokesmen for the Park Police, Federal Protective Service and special counsel Jack Smith declined to comment.
Because there are several agencies with jurisdiction “in the heart of D.C.,” one official cautioned, it was too soon to say for sure what a final security plan might look like. “There are a lot of players involved … Nobody is holding a crystal ball.”
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How will they protect the jury?
The courthouse is no stranger to high-security events. In June 2014, federal agents with long guns stood post around the building for the Saturday arraignment of Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was flown into D.C. by helicopter just after sunrise and who was later convicted of being a ringleader in the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Similarly, D.C. cocaine king Rayful Edmond III was convicted by the city’s first anonymous jury after being flown in daily by helicopter from the U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. Edmond’s high-security courtroom was equipped with bullet-resistant glass and cleared of spectators for his 13-week trial in 1989 to protect witness and jurors from his network’s enforcers, who had been linked to 30 killings.
A trial of the former president raises different considerations, but security plans will probably draw on past practices, officials said. For example, the anonymous jurors in Trump’s civil trials in New York for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll have been driven to and from the courthouse from an undisclosed location for their safety, as were jurors in the recent Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy trial of Proud Boys leaders in Washington.
Similar precautions are likely for Trump’s trial, as Smith’s prosecutors have suggested the court and Marshals Service consider measures “to protect the jury in [Trump’s] case from scrutiny and harassment,” such as arranging for jurors to gain “discreet entry into and out of the courthouse.”
Neither side has asked for a jury to remain anonymous from the parties or be sequestered throughout the trial, although prosecutors have said they may request additional measures.
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Protecting judges will be paramount
Officials also may move the Trump trial from the usual courtroom used by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is presiding over his case, for better audiovisual capabilities or more secure access from building entrances out of public view, one person said.
Amid the planning, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in early January that federal authorities have seen a “deeply disturbing spike” in threats and attacks on public officials. Threats and communications targeting court personnel quadrupled between 2015 and 2022, from 926 to 3,706, according to the Marshals Service.
In recent weeks, several bomb threats were made against state capitols, courthouses and other government buildings around the country, and hoax calls have drawn police to the homes of Smith, the special counsel; New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw a $370 million civil fraud trial against Trump; and Chutkan. Smith, Chutkan and Engoron are under security protection.
The Maine secretary of state and the Colorado Supreme Court, both of which recently deemed Trump ineligible to be on the primary ballot in their states under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, received a surge of threats after Trump lambasted them in speeches and social media posts. A woman was charged last year with making a voice-mail threat to Chutkan, while men have pleaded guilty to lodging similar threats against Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Trump has not repeated his largely ignored calls for supporters to protest outside courthouses after he was federally indicted in Florida over his alleged obstruction and mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House and in New York, where he is expected to face trial on charges of business fraud for allegedly covering up a hush money payment made during his 2016 election campaign. In Georgia, Atlanta, state and federal law enforcement officials also spent months planning for enhanced security measures before his indictment on state election-related charges there. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
Still, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves described the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as “likely the largest single day mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.” Five people died in the attack or in the immediate aftermath, and 140 police officers were assaulted. Security analysts say Trump’s trials present a very small portion of possibilities for election year violence, for which law enforcement will be on heightened alert.